CHERUB: The Simons Twins
by Lulu Bee
Summary: Anna and Emma's Dad works for the BBC, but when he gets orders for a report on some gangs stealing stuff not to be published, the two girls get curious. They are determined to find out the truth behind the story, whatever happens. Rated T cos I'm paranoid
1. The Beginning

Ok, I got this idea a while back and I thought is was quite good, so I started writing and I really enjoyed it so, enjoy!

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Chapter 1~Anna

I was bored. I was sat at the back of my Physics class, on a small, stiff chair, with a wooden, plain desk in front of me. I pulled out my phone discretely, and scrolled through my contacts, looking for one in particular. Once I found it, I texted in;

**Wow. Physics boring much? W u up 2?**

**Anna**

I saw my sister jump slightly and pull something out of her black, dull trouser pocket. I sighed at the thought of the disgusting uniform we had to wear: black trousers that were itchy and too short, a yellow blouse and a bright green blazer that attracted bugs in the summer like nobody's business. A few seconds later, my phone vibrated.

**Nothing. U do no we're ment 2 b revising, right?**

**Emma**

I grinned mischievously, and keyed in;

**Who in hell cares! No 1 else is doing NEthing. Apart from the nerds.**

**Anna**

I saw Emma's face lift up in a half smile of irritation, and bend over her desk.

**Y r u so annoying sometimes? I used 2 b a nerd! And so did u!**

**Emma**

I looked at the text message. It was true that Emma and I used to be the biggest class nerds ever. Straight As in everything. We still got the A's, but we just messed around in class now, like everyone else here. This somehow made us less nerdy, but I didn't see how.

**Well im not now. Dunno about u tho. Still look nerdy 2 me**

**Anna**

Emma actually turned round to glare at me after that comment, so I quickly wrote another text.

**Soz! Couldn't help it! R u up 4 2night?**

**Anna**

Are you up for tonight? It was our little code that meant; There's nothing to do tonight, let's go find something interesting somewhere.

Emma's reply was immediate.

**Yeah, wat 4?**

**Emma**

I thought of something easy and fun to do, then texted my reply.

**Dad's out 2night, and I found sum interesting stuff in his office last time**

**Anna**

Emma agreed quickly, and I slipped my phone into my back pocket, and went back to doodling in the back of my notebook, whilst pretending to take notes.

Mr McNeil's voice droned on throughout the entire lesson, and, despite the fact that I wasn't even listening to him, he still made me feel sleepy.

By the time the bell rang for lunch, my head felt heavy, and my arms numb. I shoved my stuff into my bag, slung it over my shoulder, and marched over to my sister.

Emma, like me, had long, blonde hair, with pretty and completely natural brown highlights in it, but where Emma's eyes were a brilliant turquoise; mine were a beautiful brown. Our other features were just about the same; pale, pale skin, sharp, defined cheek bones, small button-like nose and dimpled cheeks that annoyed the hell out of me.

"Hey, are you coming or what?" I asked impatiently, as my sister slowly picked up her bag.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Emma said absentmindedly, as she heaved her bag up onto her shoulders.

We headed out of the dull grey coloured room and into the crowded, noisy hallway.

Once in the hallway, we headed to our lockers, dunked our bags there and headed up to the lunch hall. The lunch was mince pie, a horrible sloppy combination of watered-down potatoes, vegetarian mince, and extra broccoli. I decided that I now hated school lunches more than ever.

"So, what've you got after lunch?" I asked my sister.

Emma shrugged, "French,"

I stared at her, and then asked, "Want to skive?"

* * *

Chapter 2~Anna

Emma stared at me in amazement, and, noticing her look, I groaned, "I forget that deep down inside of you, there is a goody-goody two shoes just waiting to be released! But anyway, it's not like I haven't skived before! It's easy to do, since you've got Mrs. K, who wouldn't notice anything different if a giant panda started talking to her,"

Emma stared at her again, but sceptically this time, "And who've you got?"

I winced, "Mrs Fonder,"

Mrs Fonder was the evil, strict P.E. teacher of the school, and was known to be the most horrible teacher alive. If Hell was real, then she would deserve burn there for the rest of eternity. And then a bit longer.

Emma frowned, "But-"

"But it'll be easy to fake a cramp, or twisted ankle. I can bunk off easy!" I interrupted.

Emma thought it over for a while, but the prospect of two whole extra hours free time must have been a lot more welcome than French lessons, as she finally muttered, "Ok then, but if we get into trouble, our excuse is that we were helping Mrs Bo Peep find all of her sheep!"

I remembered the old joke, and laughed, before adding, "And there was one over in Mexico, so we had to catch the plane over there for her. Had a real nice time, the weather was great!"

We laughed a bit before picking around at our lunches, eating the most edible parts, and leaving the hall.

I went off to find Mrs Fonder, whilst Emma collected our bags. I knocked on Mrs Fonder's office door, before doubling over, and clutching my stomach, screwing my face up in pain.

Mrs Fonder came to the door. "Anna! What are you doing! Stand straight immediately!"

I made a show of it, groaning, and wrapping my arms tightly around my thin, agile body.

"Mrs Fonder, I'm really sorry, but I've got an incredibly bad cramp in my stomach, and the school nurse says I should go home,"

Mrs Fonder frowned down at me, as I held my breath. Finally, the horrid teacher spoke. "You can be excused from my lesson, but I want you back here next lesson, and you'll have to stay after school to make up for the time you've missed!"

"Thank you Mrs Fonder," I said weakly, walking off slowly.

The minute I heard the door shut, I stood up again, and my expression of pain turned into one of annoyance.

"Stupid b*tch!" I muttered fiercely under my breath, "I'm not even getting to miss the lesson!"

Emma soon caught up with me, and together, we walked to the small wooded area behind the school. A few metres into the woods, a five-metre fence blocked us in, but, having done it many times, I chucked my bag over with ease, and climbing was a breeze to. Emma followed my lead in a more precautious way, but still made it over.

"Ok, time to ditch the school uniform and have some bloody fun!" I said enthusiastically.

Emma shrugged, and we headed out of the woods.

Ten minutes later, we arrived in front of a small family home, on the end of the cul-de-sac. I opened the door with my key, and walked in.

I turned to Emma, who was lingering at the doorway. "C'mon, Dad's out, remember? And Mum will have passed out drunk, and Gabby and Arron will be at school. No one will notice we're here,"

Emma walked in, and we changed into jeans and t-shirts before heading downstairs for a snack.

As I had promised, Mum was lying on the sofa, asleep, with a pile of beer cans surrounding her. I looked at her disgustedly, and walked on to the kitchen. Emma looked at our drunken mother with pain, but walked through to the kitchen quickly.

I had decided long ago that I hated Mum. Well… maybe not hated, but disliked. My Mum had refused to work when we needed more money, never lifted a finger in the house, and left it up to our Dad to do everything. Emma and I owned a lot of second hand stuff, shared a bedroom with our little sister, Gabby, and had to get jobs to earn money, so that we could buy the stuff we needed for school, as well as to try and keep up with all the new stuff, which, try as we might, we never really succeeded in. Had Mum even attempted to stop drinking, and lighten their heavy loads, just a little? No. It was for those reasons that I 'disliked' her.

Emma, on the other hand, felt betrayed by Mum, but still remained faithful to her. Sure, she was angry when their Mum didn't help, and when Emma and I had had to get jobs at the age of fourteen, but, she was still our Mum.

The jobs weren't even that bad, Emma always reasoned. A neighbour's friend had offered us a job, helping sell fakes of all the new designer stuff. It wasn't anything illegal, as they told everyone that the stuff was fake, and it got us a bit of money, and some fashionable fakes that hadn't been sold.

Whatever Emma said though, I couldn't see how the drunken woman on our couch could ever be a Mum. A Mum wasn't who you inherited your looks, or your attitude problems from. A Mum was someone who looked after you, cared for you and raised you from birth. A Mum was someone who loved you. The woman on the couch in the other room was not my Mum.

The two of us ate a snack of stale digestive biscuits in silence, both brooding on the unavoidable mess that was our family while our Mum's snores bounced loudly around the room.

After we were finished, I brightened up the mood.

"I know, let's look in Dad's office now, while it's nice and quiet in the house, that way we'll get more done!"

Emma agreed, and we both marched up the stairs to Dad's study.

It was a small room, with a wooden desk and threadbare chair. The only up-to-date thing was a brand new laptop that Dad's work had lent him.

Dad works for the BBC, editing and filming the reports, and putting them together. He gets a decent amount of money for his work, but is nearly always away somewhere.

The place was cluttered up with papers, but Emma and I knew exactly how everything was ordered, as Dad talked about it all the time.

I marched knowingly over to a small pile in the corner, and rifled through it, while Emma immediately logged onto the computer, to see if she could hack the Internet from next door.

"Here it is!" I declared after a few minutes. I slammed down a small, plain file on the desk and pulled out a few papers.

"Hmm… let's see what we have here," I muttered to myself.

Emma got up to peer over my shoulders. "What's it about?" She demanded impatiently, after several long minutes of silence.

"Some reports on suspicious youths causing havoc at an old dude's estate. The man got back, and discovered a whole ton of paper work was missing. Weird, right?" I asked

Emma nodded mutely, having no idea where it was heading.

"Well, this is even weirder," I continued, "Dad was doing some massive report on it, 'cos the old dude paid the BBC, and this is the information he got. But, then, suddenly, a group of high up people in the government ordered a cover up! The press were told they couldn't print a single word about it!"

Emma frowned. "That _is_ weird," she said, "The government wanting to cover up some gang activity!"

I waggled my eyebrows at Emma, and sat back into the seat by the laptop, and brought up Google.

"C'mon, let's check it out!" I told her.

We searched all over the Internet, but all of the posts on it were removed.

"Damn it!" I yelled, after half an hour of nothing but blanks and removed reports.

Emma sighed at me, and I could just tell what she was thinking, my sister, ever the hothead.

Then Emma said, "Think about it though, Ann, the reports and posts were removed for a reason, so it must be pretty important,"

I calmed down, and started to shove the sheets in the photocopier.

"What are you doing?" Emma burst out, "You can't photocopy that! If Dad was told not to do the report, he'll probably have to shred all the information!"

I just shook my head at my sister and tutted, "Honestly Em, you're supposed to be the clever one! We can keep the photocopies and return the originals back to Dad, and no one will be any the wiser! I don't know about you, but I really do want to find out what this is about! Don't you?"

Emma debated for a few minutes, then nodded slowly.

"OK then! I'm gonna start to cook tea, but afterwards, I'm heading to the library to do some research!"

* * *

Chapter 3

Mac was furious. If CHERUB hadn't got a big influence in the government, then the whole place would've been done for! And all because one of their agents hadn't checked to see if their portable scanner was working properly. He'd punished him already; a recruiting mission and three weeks' worth of laps when he got back.

There was a knock on the door and Meryl Spencer came in.

"Are all of the stories about it off the Internet?" Mac asked immediately.

Meryl tutted. "What? Do you honestly think I'd leave a whole bunch of reports about us on the Internet?"

Mac saw that he had offended Meryl, and quickly changed the subject.

"No! Of course not!" He told her, and then paused, "Why are you here anyway?"

Meryl looked annoyed suddenly, "Because despite the fact that there is not one single piece of information left on any computer or website, and not a single report on TV was shown, someone still knows!"

Mac leant forward suddenly. "What!"

"This afternoon, someone was searching the story on the internet! They didn't find any information, of course, but what worries me is how they found out about it in the first place!"

Mac frowned and thought for a minute. "Try and work out the whereabouts of this mystery person, we may have to do something about him, or her. In the meantime, keep an eye out for anyone searching the incident, and try to deter them.

* * *

Chapter 4~Anna

"Mmm… Smells nice! What is it?" Gabby asked me when she came through the door.

Gabby was 8 years old, and, like Emma, she had brilliant turquoise eyes, with little hints of electric blue in them. Her golden coloured hair flew straight past her shoulders in a curly mess, and landed somewhere past her waist. She desperately needed a haircut.

"Fried chicken, chips, and ketchup," I told her.

"Awesome, man, put please can I have a wrap with it?" Gabby begged.

I sighed and chucked a packet of wraps at her head. She ducked.

Gabby was hyperactive a lot of the time and she ate the weirdest of foods. She didn't like bread and butter, but was ok with buttered toast. She despised milk, but ate it with her cereal. Her favourite foods were chocolate fingers dipped in ketchup, up until a year ago, when she found out that people ate ketchup sandwiches. I mean, yuck! Who wants to eat bread with ketchup smeared all over it?

Arron came in later on. Arron is an awesome brother, but he's eighteen, in sixth form, and studying for his final exams, so we rarely ever see him. Unlike us girls, Arron has black hair, and dark skin, which we suspect he inherited from our Gran; who was dark skinned and dark haired too, but she died years ago, so we can only compare them with photos.

His eyes though, were the same colour as mine; a gorgeous chocolate brown.

"Thanks Anna," He said as he grabbed a plate and some food, "Sorry I got in late, I had to-"

"Had to study, I know, it's not your fault," I told him, "You'll have to get a good grade mind! If this is all an excuse to see your girlfriend…" I left off the end so he could imagine a punishment for himself.

Arron grinned and waggled his tongue at me. I grinned back and reached for the ketchup.

"Ketchup, Arron?" I said, still grinning evilly.

"Um…" Arron muttered looking at the ketchup bottle nervously.

"I'll take that as a yes then," I told him, and squirted ketchup all over his face.

"Shit, Anna!" My brother laughed at me.

"Yes, your face does look like it!" I laughed back.

Emma looked on disapprovingly but Gabby was giggling quietly in the background.

I got up from the table and cleared my plate away, before announcing to my family that Emma and me were off to the library to use the Internet for reasons unknown to the rest of mankind.

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Chapter 5~Emma

Anna and I walked down to the library in silence; it was only a few streets away, and took just under five minutes to walk to. Seven on a rainy day. I'd timed it loads of times, but I didn't tell Anna; she still isn't quite sure whether I'm a geek or not, and I know I'm not, I just prefer to stay out of trouble.

Anna, and me we're different in that way. Me? I think that if trouble is going to find me, let it find me. Anna though, can't stand the immense boredom of waiting for it, so she goes out to find it for herself. She's always been the more daring of us two, and probably always will.

When we arrived at the library, it was dark and all but empty; the dingy lights hanging from the ceiling had cobwebs hanging down from them, that no one had bothered to clean for years, and they flickered on and off, giving the atmosphere a feeling of abandonment. The librarian, Mrs. Hugh, behind the desk had long since dozed off, so it looked as if we would be able to hack the Internet for free, rather than having to pay for a computer. As long as we were quiet and didn't wake her up, we could get away with almost anything.

"C'mon," Anna whispered to me, sliding off her backpack to reveal a slim, lightweight laptop. We'd saved up for that years, Anna and I; not buying any chocolates or sweets; no DVD's, no cinema trips; no new clothes; birthday and Christmas present requests were money, not shiny new toys that we'd never be able to afford anyway, until, finally, with all the money we were earning and all the money we had saved, we'd been able to afford the laptop.

It wasn't exactly the cheapest laptop ever, but it wasn't a bazillion pound one either. It had all the stuff we needed, and was ideal for us.

We sat in a corner behind the bookshelves, so that no one could see us straight away, and immediately Anna started to attempt to hack the libraries internet. After a few attempts, she was through, but I didn't peek over her shoulder to look. No, Anna was engrossed, so she wouldn't notice me wandering amongst the books in the library, running my fingers over their bumpy, lumpy covers, reading their titles, staring at them longingly. To everyone else but Anna; I was Emma, the weird kid that used to be a nerd, and am now just another one of them; cool kids who spent their lives in detention and ended up being wasted and in prison before they were twenty. But to Anna, I was a girl who was once a geek, and always will be geeky, but she didn't mind; under the tough show we put on, I knew both of us were just a little bit _too_ nerd-like to ever be as cool as the other kids in our class.

Suddenly, a blaring alarm sounded from the laptop, interrupting me from my thoughts, and the librarian from her sleep. I darted behind a bookshelf as Anna cut the sound and switched off the laptop; Mrs Hugh knew us, and would guess immediately we'd been bagging on free Internet.

Anna slid up behind me silently, as Mrs Hugh clunked noisily out from behind her desk.

"Who's there?" She asked, breaking the eerie, unnatural silence of the room with her nasal, high-pitched whine of a voice.

Silence answered her question, as she stalked further forward, heading in the opposite direction to us.

Anna mouthed silently to me; "When she gets right over to the other side, make a run for it. Stay as quiet as possible,"

I looked at her deliberately, and then at the door, then back to her, as if to say, "How are we supposed to run silently ten metres across tiled floor without getting caught?"

Anna grinned looked at the librarian, who had just got to the other side of the room, then dashed across to hide next to the door. The door was electric, so the minute it opened, Mrs Hugh would know where we were, so we'd have to make a run for it the minute it did.

I hesitated, and then darted soundlessly over to Anna. The two of us dashed in front of the door and were out of it before it was fully open. We were halfway down the street before we turned round to see Mrs Hugh staring out of the library door in puzzlement. Anna cackled madly and sprinted off again. I sighed at her dramatics and set off after her.

When we arrived back to our house, it was about 9 o'clock, so Anna and I went up to our bedroom to talk in piece while Arron entertained Gabby downstairs with the old Scalextric track that was pretty much the only thing interesting enough to keep her attention.

They would be up in half an hour, we both knew that. Mum would wake up soon and start screaming at everyone and complaining, so everyone avoided her. The only time we actually saw Mum without a hangover or not passed out was seven o'clock in the morning, when she had just got up and hadn't drank enough to be at that stage.

It hurt that Mum didn't try to look after us, and didn't act like everyone else's mothers did. When Anna and I went round to a friend's house once, their Mum had made dinner and let us do whatever we wanted, so long as we tidied up afterwards. She would look at her daughter adoringly, and amuse her with funny jokes, and old stories about _her_ Mum.

All our Mum did was shouting. When she looked at you, it was in annoyance or disgust. You never saw our Mum giving us hugs and kisses, even when we're way too old for it. You don't see her waving you off every morning at God knows what hour of the day. You just see her staring at you in hatred.

Mum thought her life sucked. She has _no_ idea.

* * *

Chapter 6~Anna

I was totally freaked out. I'd been on the laptop for a few minutes, and had searched the Internet for the incident with the old man and the missing paper. I was just about to click on another link to see if it was any good, when a conversation box popped up.

**What are you doing? **It couldn't be a kid; I knew that straight away; any kid would have used text language.

**Nought 4 u lyk! **I answered; I may as well let them know that I was a kid. What harm could it do?

**Why are you looking on the Internet for this story?**

**Y r u having a conversation wiv me? Who the f*ck knows? I wuz bored **I hated adults sticking their noses into things; they were so damn… nosey!

**Stop looking for information on this story, you wont find anything**

**Sod u! I can do wat I want, thank ya v. much! Shove off who eva u r! **Whoever it was, was really starting to get on my nerves.

**If you do not stop looking for information, I will set off an alarm on your computer that will put a virus onto it after the alarm has gone off for two minutes. The virus will delete all your data and wreck the computer**

**Thnx, bwt no thnx **I typed, and deleted the conversation box.

It popped back up again, and I mentally cursed whoever had invented them.

**Who are you? Where are you?** The message read.

Hmm… I thought. Let's have some fun with this.

**How cud u not know me! I'm the bloody queen! I live in Buckingham palace, a massive mansion in the centre of London, and lots of Japanese tourists come 2 take pics of mah guards. This is an insult!**

**Clearly, you are not the Queen **the message popped up on the screen

**Well la di da! U actually own a brain cell or 3, everybody celebrate!**

**I can tell that you are in a library somewhere in the outskirts of Manchester **

**How do u know that?** I typed, suddenly cautious

**I'll give you one minute before I upload the virus**

It hit me suddenly; this person, whoever he, or she was, didn't want me to know about the incident, so, therefore must be related to it somehow.

**U had sumthing 2 do with the old dude who had a whole bunch of paperwork missing, didn't u** I typed.

My head whizzed faster than ever as I went through all the hacking techniques that my Dad had taught me, trying to guess the right one to figure out where this person was.

If I could find out who she was, or where she lived, I could find out just a little bit more.

It took me just a few seconds, and then I started typing. A whole website's worth of information came up. I scanned through it all, searching for a name, or address. A random set of initials went by, my brain took it in without registering it; I'd think about it later.

I found a name and address.

**So, Meryl Spencer, is it? U **_**do**_** know that 2 can play at a game of hackie? Right?**

Two seconds later, the alarm went off, deafening me for a few moments. I panicked, closing all the websites quickly, switching the laptop off and stuffing it back into my backpack. The alarm stopped, and I slid over to Emma.

Whew! That was close, I thought.

I had no idea that I'd just gotten Emma and I into a whole other world of trouble.


	2. Unexpected

ok, here's the next part!

* * *

Chapter 7

Meryl Spencer charged into Mac's office, too late remembering to knock. Oh, screw knocking! She thought. She banged her laptop on the desk and glared at Mac, in a foul temper now. The child knew all about her now, and, if they knew about her, there was more than a possibility that they knew about CHERUB.

"A child just managed to hack into my personal information!" She screeched at Mac.

Mac, misinterpreting her, said, "Well, don't complain to me, find out who did it and make them do a few laps!"

"No, Mac," Meryl said, calm all of a sudden, as she realised that she wasn't mad at whoever had done it, as she had started it, she was mad at Mac. "A child. Who isn't on Campus."

Mac looked confused for a second, and then it dawned on him. "How?" He demanded, "Why?"

Meryl glared at him, then explained, "It must have been the same one I caught earlier, having another go at finding information. I'd been keeping an eye on the searches, like you told me, and it popped up. So, to try to dissuade the person from looking again, I started a conversation with them. It was a child. I knew that straight away, because they talked in text language. I asked why they were looking for information on the incident, and they told me they were bored. They were lying, I suspect, why would a bored child look on the Internet for a story that no one knows about? So I hacked their account, but they'd put up some sort of protection barrier on it. All I could get was where they were!"

Mac was interested now, "Where were they?"

"In a library on the outskirts of Manchester. Whether they were travelling, or lived nearby, I don't know. Anyway," Meryl continued, "I threatened them with a virus that could wreck their computer and they ignored me, so I told them I knew that they were in a library on the outskirts of Manchester, they asked how I knew that, and I threatened them with the virus again, they didn't answer for a few seconds, then said, 'So, Meryl Spencer is it?' and I uploaded the virus,"

She took in a deep breath, and stared again at Mac, who was deep in thought.

"What protection level are your files?"

Meryl frowned and said, "Security clearance one, which worries me even more; a child can hack the highest security rank the government have, and I couldn't hack their computer, even though I've been trained by the government to hack computers,"

Mac smiled for the first time, "I think this _child_ sounds rather clever, don't you?"

* * *

Chapter 8~Emma

"-and then the alarm goes off!" Anna exclaimed.

Wow, I thought, I never knew Anna was that good at hacking, maybe I should have listened more when Dad taught us to hack accounts. Then again, Anna's been hacking experimentally for years, she probably knows a lot more about it than Dad would feel comfortable with. Plus, Dad's always had a soft spot for Anna, and she was most definitely his favourite.

"Hmm…" I said, searching for something to say, "What was that initial thing you spotted?"

"Oh!" Anna exclaimed, and I was willing to bet my new, fake handbag that she had completely forgotten about it, even though she'd told me about it, just a few minutes ago.

"Yeah, it was something to do with one of those baby angels things… Oh yeah! CHERUB! That was it! What do you think it means? Can you imagine a person with a name that long? I mean, you know, with all those initials? Wow, I wish I had a name that long. Hmm… maybe not. Imagine on your first day at a new school, having to say something like that!"

"Anna, I don't think it was someone name," I told her.

Anna's eyes widened. "You think it was an organization?" She squeaked.

One thing about Anna; she was so bored usually, that when something interesting came along, she was all caught up in it, and excited. It had taken her all of last year to finally stop bouncing around when something different happened.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang. We both tensed. Anna went white.

"You don't suppose they found out where we live, do you?" She stuttered. By 'they', I presume she meant CHERUB, or whatever.

I shook my head, and stood up. Anna stood up too, and we walked over to the bedroom door, just as we heard Arron open the door.

"Can I help you?" We heard him ask.

"I'm afraid your Dad has been in a car accident," The guy at the other side of the door said.

Anna shook slightly, then, leaped forward, yanked open the door and ran down the stairs to the door.

"He WHAT!" She screamed.

I followed her down and saw the police officer at the door.

"Anna-"I started, but she talked right over me.

"What happened? Where is he? Is he ok? Why isn't he here? Did anyone die? Did… Did…?" Anna was trembling madly now, she was almost screaming. The policeman looked grave.

"He's in hospital; it was raining badly on the motorway, it would have been impossible for him to see the crashed cars in front of him. He rammed straight into them. His injuries may be fatal,"

Anna just stood there, her face a mask of shock at the last sentence. Tears streamed down her cheeks. I looked at Arron, and he looked back. I could see the panic in his eyes, but could tell he was trying not to let it show, to keep Anna from losing it.

Whatever Dad meant to us, he meant ten times that to Anna. She was the one who kept everyone up at night when she was little; screaming for Dad, she was the one who begged him every night to read the same story, again and again. She was the one who missed him the most when he was away, but she was also the one who could see clearly what was happening right then.

If Dad's injuries were fatal, and he died, Mum would be in no condition to look after us. We'd be put into care. I didn't realise that until later.

"Arron!" Gabby whined from the other room. She walked through and saw us all.

"Um… Never mind… I'll… go wait in the other room," She stuttered.

"Come here, Gabby," I said, and held out my hand. Gabby walked over, and I lifted her up onto my hip. She was heavier then when she was only six or seven, but I was still strong enough for her not to be too heavy for me, and she hadn't grown an awful lot.

"Can we go to the hospital and see Dad?" Arron asked.

Gabby looked confused, but didn't say anything. Neither of us had the heart to tell her what had happened.

"That's why we're here," The police man said, "Someone had to tell you the bad news, and you're Dad said you didn't have a car, and that you're mum would be drunk,"

"He was talking?" I asked, a spurt of hope grew suddenly.

The policeman shook his head, "He was, but he isn't any more,"

* * *

Chapter 9~ Anna

Dad's injuries were fatal. He could die. I got that, but not anything else. I knew that if Dad died, we would be sent into care, as Mum wouldn't be able to look after us. I knew I was shaking and crying, but I didn't know how to stop. Arron put his arm around me, and prised my hand off the door. I looked at it. I hadn't even realised I'd been holding the door.

Arron guided me down the drive and into the back of the police car. I remember it was raining. Heavily. I think the policeman had said something about rain. I'm not sure. I can't remember Gabby or Emma getting in. I just remember feeling cold, and upset.

I remember the scene changing, from the dull, black seat of the police car, to bright fluorescent lighting. Hospital, I thought, we're in hospital. I think Arron tried to talk to me, but I didn't know how to make my mouth work, I just clung to his arm, and he gave up, and helped me walk along the corridor. Everything felt numb, and shaky and dizzy. I was scared.

We went into a large room, where lots of people were waiting. I saw my sisters by the reception desk. They were standing next to another policeman, who was talking in a low voice to the person there. She nodded and pointed towards a set of doors at the far end of the room. I wanted to know what she was saying, but I didn't know how to listen. There was buzzing all around me, but I couldn't tell what it was.

Arron helped me over to the door, and we walked up some stairs and through some corridors. It was all white and horrible; it was giving me a headache. I tried to close my eyes, but I didn't know how to move them. We walked into a small, private room, and I saw lots of doctors, huddled around a person lying on the bed. It was my Dad. My knees shook violently, and I fell into Arron. I shivered, but I couldn't tell whether it was from the cold, or from seeing my Dad. He looked dead already.

Emma and Gabby came over, and I could see that they had been crying. I could see a doctor come over, and help me into a chair. I started shaking madly, and once I started I couldn't stop. Hot tears sprung from my eyes, with heat I didn't know I still had. The doctor leaded over me, and said something, but I didn't hear what it was. I felt a small prick in my arm, and tried to see what it was, but everything was spinning madly. I slumped, and everything went black.

* * *

Chapter 10~Emma

Anna went into shock. That's what they told me, after they'd stuck a needle in her arm. They'd taken her to a room across from us, so she could sleep peacefully. I held onto Gabby, who was crying hard on my lap.

Arron had gone to make sure Anna was ok, and so, it was just me and Gabby, sitting next to our father, in hospital, wondering if he would live or die.

The policemen had left as soon as they'd escorted us to the hospital. I guess they're not too keen on all of the mushy gushy family stuff. Mum hadn't even bothered coming. We'd left a note on the fridge, so she'd notice it when she got up, since the fridge was where the beer was.

There was only one doctor in the room, since there wasn't much they could do right now. If Dad reacted to the treatment they were giving him, then they could help him. If he didn't, he was going to die.

Arron came back in to talk with the doctor about Dad's injuries, and I suddenly remembered how much Arron had wanted to study medicine in university.

The doctor explained to Arron about Dads injuries, but I didn't want to hear, so I just rocked Gabby backwards and forwards, trying to keep her calm.

"Emma? Is Dad gonna die?" She asked me suddenly, seeming ten times younger than her age.

"I don't know Gabby, I don't know," I said.

After a while, Arron took over Gabby, and left me to think about what had happened.

Unlike most people when their Dad gets seriously injured, I thought about Buddhism. Buddhism is seriously depressing, just so you all know (no offence or anything, but it is).

It's all about learning that nothing stays the same, that everyone changes, even you. It's really pessimistic. One of the main points in Buddhism is enlightenment, and suffering. If you find enlightenment, it means you have cut all connections with people who were your family and friends. You don't care about them, so, if they get hurt, it doesn't hurt you. See why I'm considering it now? But, if you ask me, Buddhism is the cowards way out, I mean, no offence again, but Buddhists are all; Oooh! Suffering is bad! But they don't try to change it, do they? No, they try to escape it! Wow, whatever genius came up with this may want to re-think things. Buddhism is one messed up, majorly depressing religion.

Mum came in at about 11 o'clock. She took one look at Dad and burst onto tears, crying about how unfair her life is, and I just snapped.

I walked over to her, and slapped her hard across the face.

"Shut. Up." I said, grabbing her shoulders. Arron didn't try to stop me, but I think that it was mainly because he really wanted to slap her himself.

"You're always going on about how unfair your life is. You waste it drinking, so you don't have to feel pain. When you can't drink away the pain, you take it out on us. One thing in your life went wrong, and you snapped! One thing! Instead of getting on with your life, you make everyone else's a misery! You're a selfish bitch who deserves every cruel thing that happens to you!" I shouted at her.

Mum wiped her tears away and glared at me, but Arron and Gabby came to back me up.

"Emma's right, you deserve more than a slap though," Arron told her.

"Yeah, you should be locked away for the rest of your life and be forced to eat broccoli and tomatoes and lettuce!" Gabby told her.

I smiled slightly. Only Gabby could make an insult funny as well as insulting. I could just imagine Anna walking up and punching Mum in the face, like she always talked about.

Mum picked up a wine bottle from the floor, that I hadn't even noticed, and downed a whole lot of it before storming out of the room.

"Don't ever come back!" Gabby yelled after her.

Our moment of triumph lasted just over a second, before the grey reality settled back, in the way of a series of beeps from the monitor turning into one long beep. I screamed, and a whole group of doctors ran in, and over to Dad.

They tried CPR, but it was useless, Dad wouldn't respond. When they brought out the paddles, he was already turning blue. Our Dad died five minutes later, from lack of oxygen.


	3. A Couple Of Random Chapters

Ok, here's some more of the story! In answer to TigersRUs' question; I haven't yet decided whether the dad is actually dead or not, so, if he isn't it might just pop up later in the story... until then, we're all just gonna have to sit and wait with as much anticipation as we can... come up with...

* * *

Chapter 11~Anna

I woke up in a strange room. The bed was soft and non-lumpy, and a thick cover was wrapped around me. The walls were painted yellow which gave the room a look that said; this is supposed to look cheerful, but it kinda failed! I wondered where I was.

"Oh! You're up!" Gabby said in a tone that was struggling to not be monotone.

"Ungh! Where am I?" I asked her, sitting up. I was still in my clothes off yesterday. I frowned, trying to remember what had happened yesterday.

Gabby looked sad, no, more than sad... severely depressed. "Dad… He didn't…Make it…"

"Shit!" I said, toppling out of bed, "What do you mean he didn't make it! He has to make it! Otherwise we'll be stuck in… care," I said softly, realising at last where we were. "Oh God! Gabby I am so sorry," I said, going over to her and hugging her tight.

Gabby hugged me back hard, and burst into tears. "It was right after Emma slapped Mum too!" She sobbed into my t-shirt.

"Wait a minute! Is my hearing working properly? Emma _slapped _Mum? We are talking about the same Emma, right? Emma, our sister, our non-violent, just-ignore-her-she'll-get-tired-of-shouting Emma?"

Gabby giggled, and I hugged her tight, "C'mon," I told her, trying to stop her from thinking about Dad. Trying to stop myself. "Let's go get something to eat, 'cos I don't know about you, but I am _starving_!"

I took her hand and walked out of the room. I patted down my hair to make sure it wasn't going completely crazy, and then tried to smooth out some of the creases in my clothes.

"Jesus! The amount of creases I've got in my jeans!" I muttered, "It's probably about twice the population of the world!"

Gabby smiled at that, and I put an arm around her.

Emma was walking up the stairs at the end of the corridor with a middle-aged woman with grey hair and a grey suit. She looked as dull as school on a rainy day.

"Good morning Anna and Gabby, I see that you're up!" The woman said brightly, and I had to bite my tongue from replying with a sarcastic comment.

"My name is Mrs Plottersville!" She said, and I had to bite my lip this time to stop from laughing.

Mrs Plottersville went on to tell us all about life in care. She even gave us a wondrously depressing guided tour of the care home.

We ended up outside a door on the second floor, which was for the girls.

"This will be your room. We are sending you over to your house to collect some belongings later on today! Until then, why don't you explore your room?" I smiled and nodded, and stuck my tongue out at her when she turned around.

The room was dingy and grey, but smelt better than most places here. There were three beds lined up against the far wall, with a wardrobe next to each, and a large chest of drawers on one side of the room for us to share. A small table took up the middle of a room. It was round and wooden, and three uncomfortable looking chairs were plonked next to it. At the other side were three dingy looking lockers.

I sighed and plonked myself on the right-hand-side bed. "Well, dibs on this bed then!" I told the others. Gabby and Emma smiled and raced over to the other beds.

We headed down for something to eat.

Everyone else had gone to school by the looks of it, and all the hot food had been eaten, so we grabbed some cereal and sat at one of the tables.

I attempted to lighten the mood, "I couldn't believe it when Gabby told me you slapped Mum! Man, I wish I'd been there, I would've bloody punched her!"

Emma blushed and smiled self-consciously before adding, "Called her bitch, just so you know!"

I scowled, "Wish I'd been there," I said again, "Would've called her a f-"

Emma coughed and stared pointedly at Gabby, "Oh! Right, yeah," I muttered. We lapsed back into an awkward silence, and I picked at my food and tried not to cry.

A man walked in a few minutes later. "Hello, I'm Casper, would you three like to collect your stuff?"

"Dude," I said, struggling to make it look like I hadn't just been about to burst into tears, "Do I look like I would _choose_ to wear these overly creased jeans a second longer than I had to? Seriously?"

The other two laughed, and Casper shrugged, not knowing what to say.

* * *

Chapter 12~Anna

We drove to our house in the care home's mini-bus. When we arrived at the house, the whole first floor was trashed, and Mum was passed out on the sofa.

I sighed and headed upstairs. Casper said he'd wait outside. I stuffed all of our clothes into a bin bag, and then started with our toys, which barely filled half of the bag. My backpack and laptop went in too. I grabbed all of our toiletries from the bathroom and chucked them in, before I pulled out my ten quid Nokia phone and rang Arron.

"Heya!" I cheered when he answered the phone.

"Yo, how are you Anna?" He asked.

I shrugged, then remembered that he wouldn't be able to see it, "I'm fine; the care home of doom and gloom has oh so kindly taken us in. So! How are you?"

"I'm ok too I guess. I just can't get over the fact that he's dead," Arron admitted.

"None of us can Ar, but we gotta. Hey! You should come over later, if you're not busy, we're at the house now so we could collect your stuff for you and give it to you later,"

"Ok with me! They've given me the day off so that I can 'adjust', so I'm free for today," Arron told me.

"The charmers," I said sourly, "Have a day off Arron; you can 'adjust' to your father dying, but, tomorrow we expect you to be back in tip-top condition!" I said, mimicking Arron's headmistress.

Arron laughed, "Yeah, that's pretty much what she said. Well, I'll drop in later I guess. God! This is so freaking weird!"

I laughed half-heartedly, "I'm with you there Ar, well, see ya later!"

"Bye,"

I hung up and turned to the others. "Right! I'll go get Arron's stuff, and some other stuff. You guys go grab all the chocolates and biscuits in the cupboards. Arron's gonna come round to the care home later. Oh! And, chuck all the beer away, or give it to the neighbours, and if Mum wakes up, yell, so I can come down and give her the punch in the face she deserves."

Gabby and Emma headed downstairs and I crossed to Arron's room and stuffed everything into bin bags. The rooms looked empty and bare without all of our stuff. Not that it hadn't looked empty and bare before.

Finally, when I couldn't put it off any longer, I walked into my Mum and Dad's room. It was just the way Dad had left it before he'd gone out for work, yesterday. I grabbed the three massive photo albums that Dad had and pushed them into my bag. I found several stashes of beer that Mum had hidden all over the room and chucked every beer bottle out of the window, taking out all my anger on them, and eventually found several more stashes of cash, that Dad must have hidden (It can't have been Mum; she spends all her money on booze). I bit my lip, then grabbed my dad's blue leather watch off the table, and a pair of Simpson's cufflinks that Gabby had bought for him one year. I stuffed them in the bag and ran out of the room before I saw anything else that could upset me further.I went downstairs, tears flowing down my cheeks. Emma hugged me quickly.

"I miss him," I sobbed.

"I know, I do too," Emma said, and, just like that, the world felt better, because I knew that I wasn't alone; Emma, and Gabby, And Arron were going through this too, it wasn't just me.

I wiped my tears away on the back of my hand, and walked through into the kitchen.

Emma and Gabby had done a great job of stuffing anything edible that would keep into a bin bag. I nodded to Gabby solemnly, and she smiled back, before taking a bin bag and hoisting it over her shoulders. We struggled over to the car with five bin bags. Casper leaped out to help. Once we were done, we piled into the back and set off. I stuck my head out of the window as Casper started the engine.

"So long suckers!" I screamed out of the window.

Casper drove off as the others turned to stare at me.

"What. The. Hell?" Emma asked.

"Meh, what's your problem, we may as well," I told her.

"I want a go!" Gabby yelled, and stuck her head out of the window.

"See ya later, bitch Mum!" Gabby screamed as we whizzed out of the cul-de-sac.

"Gabby!" Emma screeched, as Gabby and I cracked up laughing.

* * *

Chapter 13~Emma

I glared at Anna.

"How could you encourage her like that?"

Anna frowned, "You're right! I should have encouraged her more! I mean, it wasn't as if I even gave her the idea in the first place, was it, so I really need to think of something to make up for that!"

"What do you mean?" I hissed, "Of course you gave her the idea! If you hadn't stuck you're head out of the window, then she wouldn't have!"

Anna tutted, "Dude, keep with the times._ You_ encouraged her first!"

"What!" I hissed

Anna sighed, "So terribly set on blaming everyone else," She muttered to herself, and then turned to me, "You called Mum a bitch in front of Gabby, so she thinks it's ok. She knows that I'm always breaking the rules, so if I do something you don't, then, clearly, it's not allowed, but when you called Mum a bitch, Gabby thought 'Hey, Emma is saying rude stuff, so I can too!'"

I scowled, but refused to be proven wrong, "Where did you come up with that? I mean, seriously?"

Anna looked hurt, and I could tell I'd said something I shouldn't, "I came up with it by myself. I guess you wouldn't know what it means, since you don't have an older sister to look up to,"

"Anna-" I started, but she'd already gone.

I sighed, slumping on the stairs. I realised that Anna had been referring to the fact that, when she had been upset, or unsure, she'd looked to me, being the older of us two, for help, and that was how Gabby did things too. Great, not only had I screwed up with Gabby and her pot mouth, I'd also screwed up with Anna.

Life was hard.

* * *

Chapter 14~Anna

I lay on my bed upstairs. Gabby was around somewhere, but not in here. I frowned, blinking away tears. Why did Emma always have to act like an adult? She acted like the minute she stopped to have some fun, the whole world would collapse. She'd totally ruined the good feeling that I'd had since the ride back from our house.

I remembered way back when we were little, and Dad didn't have to work all the time. Sure, Mum was still drunk in a ditch somewhere, but who needed Mum when they had a Dad like mine? Emma and I would mess around together, and play pranks on everyone. It didn't matter that we would get into trouble afterwards; we lived for the moment. I wish I could still live like that. I rolled over in bed and thought about life being sucky. I don't remember when I fell asleep, but I remember feeling peaceful for once.

"Anna!" Arron's yell woke me up.

"Go away!" I moaned, pulling a pillow over my head, "I'm sleeping!"

"Still? You've been sleeping for more than three hours Anna," Gabby giggled.

"Is three hours sleeping that much of a crime?" I asked, sitting up in bed.

"It is when I'm around! I only have a day off, and I don't want to spend it watching you guys sleep!" Arron said.

"Well, I would!" I sniffed grumpily.

"Hey! Is this all my stuff?" Arron asked from across the room.

"Uh huh! I found an extra bit of cash in Mum and Dad's room for you. You'll need it to help you get started," I said before Arron could object.

"Ok, thanks," He muttered, looking through the money.

"I'll be expecting pay back when I turn eighteen though!" I told him.

Arron laughed, "That's another six years! I think I can live with that!"

I groaned and muttered to myself, before climbing out of bed.

Gabby leaped onto my bed and sat right on top of me.

"God, Gabby!" I groaned, "Get. The. Freaking. Hell. Off. Me… Please?"

Gabby grinned, "They're sorting out a school that's near to here for us, since our old one's too far away! Apparently it could take more than a week!"

I grinned back at her. "My mood has just improved dramatically!" I announced.

Emma came in then, and I hoisted Gabby of me in order to sit up.

"Hi," She muttered to the room in general, before turning to a half empty bag on the floor, and continuing to unpack its contents.

Arron left after another hour, claiming that he had a whole lot of homework to do, and that he'd get into trouble if he didn't hand it in on time. I left Emma to unpack our stuff and took Gabby downstairs; I'd noticed a computer in one of the rooms, and was wondering if it would have Internet.

Gabby entertained herself with one of the few books that were in the room, whilst I checked out the computer. It was pretty old; at least ten years, and it clearly hadn't been updated since it'd been bought.

It took a whole ten minutes for the screen to come on, and, by the time I actually managed to get on, I had been waiting for more than half an hour.

As soon as I was on, I clicked on Google, and typed in the initials CHERUB.

More than 5 million results popped up on the screen. I moaned silently, and clicked the first one. Locked, of course. I frowned and stared at the security questions, and the username and password boxes. Keeping a sharp look out for anyone looking over my shoulder, I leaned in, anticipating the challenge, and attempted to override the system.

It took nearly twice as long as normal and it wasn't just because the computer was so slow; I hadn't had that much challenge hacking into stuff before. It turned out to be a complete waste of time; all it had was a note saying;

Sorry, but this web page has expired.

It was maddening!

* * *

Chapter 15

A small beep from the screen of Meryl's computer told her that someone had researched CHERUB. She sighed and clicked for more information, and smiled as whoever was researching the initials clicked on the fake website that Mac had suggested she create.

It was designed to be hard to hack into, and end up revealing nothing, however, it also downloaded a virus that would tell her where the computer was, and when it was used at what times. If the computer wasn't as protected as last time, the idea might work.

"Harrison Care Home for Kids," Meryl read off the computer. She leaned further forward on her chair, "Gotcha," She murmured, and started clicking.

* * *

Chapter 16~Emma

Anna was in a mood with me. I could tell. The minute Arron had gone; she took Gabby downstairs and left me up here to unpack.

I didn't mind the peace and quiet; I had a feeling that it would be more than rare in the future. What I did mind was that I'd screwed up and Anna wasn't going to forgive me easily right now. I knew we'd make up; we always did, but, when we didn't speak to each other, it was kinda hard. Anna was the craziness that I didn't have in me, and, though it disgusted Anna much, I guess I was the sensible part that Anna had missed out on.

I finished unpacking quickly, and headed downstairs to find Gabby and Anna. They were, as I'd predicted, in the room with the computer. Anna was engrossed with the computer, her face within inches of the screen, her fingers flying over keys, tapping wildly with the mouse, and whizzing back to the keyboard. From the look on her face, I could just tell she was hacking into something.

I sat down next to Gabby and read a book out loud for her, the way we used to, before I started secondary school, and had to get a job to help support our family. Gabby curled up in my lap and sucked her thumb. I frowned but didn't say anything; Gabby only ever sucked her thumb when something was upsetting her.

After a while Anna's temper got the better of her. She punched the computer desk hard, and growled at the computer. The poor computer desk looked old and fragile, and I could see a large crack forming where Anna had hit it. I guess she still remembered the techniques we'd been taught, back when we could afford the Karate lessons, and Mum didn't drink.

The door creaked open, and the sound of shouting and yelling filled the room. I glanced at the door, and saw a number of kids coming through the door. Everyone had come back from school it seemed.

I stood up and began to make myself scarce; I didn't like being the centre of attention. Gabby seemed to share my opinion, and got up quickly too. Anna looked at us and rolled her eyes, but pulled herself away from the computer.

"I can hack the internet in my room anyway," She muttered to herself.

We went out through the other door and up to our room. I flopped on my bed and picked a book of the floor, which I'd taken from our house.

It was about some stupid idiot who thought he could turn the world into cheese. I chose it because it's supposed to be funny. So much for that idea, I thought.

Eventually, we couldn't hide any longer, as someone downstairs rang a bell for tea.

Gabby held my hand as I walked downstairs, but Anna pushed on ahead of us, and, to a complete stranger, she would have looked cool and collected, and in control. But I could tell by the way she clenched and unclenched her hands, and repeatedly pushed her hair out of her eyes. She was nervous; we were going to have to live here, and first impressions count.

A few more people walked down the stairs with us, sending us slightly curious glances, but nothing that told us we were anything unusual. I breathed a sigh of relief.

The dining room, if you could really call it that, was overcrowded and noisy. Everyone sat at their own table, and all the tables had at least one person on each of them. Looked like we were going to have to interact after all.

Anna grabbed a plate of spaghetti bolognaise and marched right up to the nearest table in the room that had room for three other people.

"Hi," She said to the boy on the table, "Mind if me and my sisters sit here?"

The boy nodded and Anna sat down, motioning for us to do the same. We grabbed some grub and sat down.

It was an awkward meal; Gabby and I were too shy to say much, and Anna seemed to drift off into a world of her own after her show of courage. The boy either wouldn't or couldn't bring himself to even tell us his name, so we sat in silence.

The minute we were finished, we left the room.


	4. Hide and Seek

Chapter 17~Anna

God! The meal was _so_horrible; after we had sat down, my mind went blank for things to say, so, stupidly, I left it to my guy-shy sister and shy with new people other sister to come up with a conversation. After ten minutes, I decided that my plan had just gone to hell, so I sat and stared at the spaghetti like it was the most interesting thing in the universe. It didn't help the fact that the spaghetti tasted like soap, and the bolognaise was way past its sell by date. I was thoroughly relieved when it was over.

After a while, I found my pyjama's and put them on, before slipping into bed and pulling the duvet over my head and trying to get to sleep. Within minutes, I could here Emma's soft snoring, and Gabby's light breathing, and I cursed my luck for being the only one not able to go to sleep.

I lay in bed and thought about my first day in the care home. On a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being the suckiest, this day rated at least 20, maybe 25. After a while, I rolled onto my tummy and glared at my watch, daring time to move any slower. 11:46. I growled at it, got out of bed, grabbed my laptop and switched it on. Damn! Why can't I just fall asleep like everyone else? I thought. I felt as if I had to do something now; there was no chance of sleep.

Once on my laptop I opened up a Word document and typed in;

**CHERUB~ possibly initials for a company or organization**

**Meryl Spencer~ has something to do with CHERUB**

**Someone in the organization knows that I live in Manchester and am very good at hacking stuff**

**I am going to find out what CHERUB is. Whether they like it or not.**

I frowned at the last sentence, because I knew that it was true; I _would_ try as hard as possible to find out what CHERUB was, and what those initials stood for. Even if it meant hacking into the government computers, because no one would ever suspect a child. No one.

I woke up late the next morning, and realised that I was still drooped over my laptop. I sat up, looking embarrassed, but Emma and Gabby were still fast asleep. My back ached from sleeping in a sitting position, and, when I wiggled the mouse on the laptop, and tried to switch it on, nothing happened; it must have ran out of batteries last night. I sighed and went to plug it in.

* * *

Chapter 18

Daniel Whitness; teenage super spy! Currently being punished via recruiting mission. Dan sighed; although he enjoyed living at CHERUB, sometimes he felt punishments there were _way_ out of line. He'd only spilt paint down the side of the building accidentally, but it still didn't stop him from being shoved off on a recruiting mission.

Meryl had seen him, and told him that an old friend of CHERUB had seen some people that might be decent recruits, so Dan had been sent off to Harrison Care Home for Kids on a recruiting mission. His friends had laughed at him when he'd whined to them; Dan was a goody two shoes, perfect in every way, so getting _this_ as a punishment was a real crack up for them.

The taxi pulled up a short drive to a four-storey house that looked like it was falling apart. Great, Dan thought, my luxury accommodation is a trashed up, dump of disrepair.

He climbed out and grabbed his suitcase from the seat next to him. He paid the driver and lugged his suitcase up to the building. It was the middle of the day, everyone would be out of school, the staff would be relaxing in their own rooms, so he would have the place to himself to explore, whoopee! Please note that sarcasm was indeed intended, he thought.

He was vaguely surprised when a member of staff met him at the door and helped him bring in his suitcase. He got fitted with an empty room, with no one but himself, and was left there to his own devices, after being told that a school was being arranged, but it may take a while.

He was just about to grab his lock gun and explore, when he heard voices in the corridor. It sounded like two girls.

"Seriously Ann?" One voice asked, "What is with the obsession? You've been trying to find out about it all last night, and now too! When are you going to give up?"

Dan edged closer to hear the reply.

"When I'm no longer curious," The other voice retorted.

There was a long silence. What are they going on about? Dan asked himself.

"Look, the papers on those youths that we found in Dad's office are stupid! We should be worrying about more important things! Gabby's only 8, and she's probably never going to get over seeing Dad suffocate right in front of her!"

"Yeah, well, you were doing fine with her last time I checked!"

There was another pause, and Dan pressed his ear to the key whole so he could hear better, then;

"But how long am I going to be able to keep it up Ann? I don't think I'm ever going to be able to make up for Mum and Dad, or even just Dad on his own, since Mum never helped anyway..."

A heavy sigh, "Ok, Emma, I'll stop trying to research CHERUB, for now, but, honestly, are you not even a tiny bit curious about it?"

Dan froze. CHERUB? Was he just being incredibly paranoid, or did it seem like those two girls knew more than they should?

"Thanks and, honestly Anna? Since Dad died, I kinda thought there were more important things, you know?"

The two girls' footsteps echoed through the hallway, signalling the end of their conversation.

Dan, however, was still frozen against the door. His brain whirred for several seconds as he registered what he had heard, and then he went over to the bed to sit down. Could it possibly be-? No! How could Meryl even known about them… unless…! Dan bit his lip. Maybe, just maybe, Meryl had sent him here to recruit the two girls from in the corridor.

* * *

Chapter 19~Emma

I confronted Anna in the hallway, making sure Gabby was well out of earshot. I knew she had been looking up CHERUB last night, and yesterday, but I didn't get her obsession with it. Sure, I had been curious at first, but that was when we still owned our lives, and controlled them ourselves; we could do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted, but now, the care workers had the reigns, and we have to do what they tell us to. I didn't want to drag in some old report that should've been destroyed. Those reports could get us into serious trouble. Not that Anna would mind.

After the confrontation, we kinda semi-made up, and headed downstairs to find Gabby. When we reached the playroom, we found a young woman, about twenty to thirty years old talking to Gabby.

She was stick thin, and the veins on her hands were practically jumping out of her skin. She was smaller than the average adult, but still around the same height as Anna and I. I went over to Gabby and sat next to her. She grabbed my hand and squeezed it, smiling at me.

Anna walked lightly over, in a way that told me that she was totally spaced out. She sat down on the other side of Gabby and stared at the woman. Uh oh! II thought.

"You have veins sticking out of your hands," Anna commented. I winced. Great way to start the conversation Anna, I thought.

The woman nodded, "Yes, it would appear I do. I am Jennifer. Jennifer Mitchum. I'm the consoler for the care home,"

Anna opened her mouth, but I interrupted her before she could say anything, "Nice to meet you, Jennifer," I said politely.

Jennifer offered her hand and we shook, just to be annoyingly formal for no reason at all.

"I'll be having separate sessions with the three of you for the next few weeks," Jennifer continued, "Loosing a parent is hard, but re-adjusting to a life without them is even harder,"

Wow, I thought to myself, is that supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing?

* * *

Chapter 20~Anna

_Og4o66bh CHERUB has a total of sjlja2h9fs g3hr7ksd_ _living on campus._

_The Campus has nd3fb 4 swimming pools, a running track and u854dbau bofu932bas ubdfo583bd vidb395aob._

_The dds8a02bdio ioas84 missions dhoew320bisd._

_A iijbjhv43bjb sdk5njf 7gtjv9fjh fhe6jdxzk._

_Hfjsugfd hhgfreh90g 0ujtohetow hryq 8y5rjhoyty ttbjgfngf gsdf bfa waytgfjrdguj gjh dshdyse g wf wqgha sgh bfdkihk fhgj fdhui rdhterhti wyht_

_N31t Pag3 -_

I felt like screaming as I looked at the computer screen. Every time I managed to hack into a website with the initials CHERUB on it, all the words come up as a complete mess. I've tried everything I can think off, and none of it worked!

I know I swore to my sister that I wouldn't look up CHERUB again, but I couldn't help it, it was just too tempting! Suddenly, I heard footsteps at the end of the hall. It was 11 o'clock in the morning, so it would either be staff or my sister. I deleted the history, crossed off the Internet and switched off the laptop. I ran over and plonked it in my backpack, then jumped onto my bed and grabbed a book off the floor.

My sister walked in. I sighed quietly, and looked up at her.

"How majorly boring is this?" I asked, chucking the book at her.

Emma cracked a smile, but her heart wasn't in it. It never was these days. "They've sorted out a place at school for us," She announced, "We'll be starting on Monday, in 4 days time!"

I groaned; we'd had almost a whole week off now, and I'd been desperately hoping that we might actually never have to go to school. "Geez! Could have given us a bit more warning, couldn't they?" I complained.

Emma sat down on Gabby's bed and started to put together a pencil case and general school stuff. I sighed.

"You know, Gabby is 8, she can back her own bag for school," I told Emma.

Emma scowled. "Where is she anyway?"

I stared at her, "Have I actually remembered something that you haven't? Wow! The moon must really have been turned to cheese by that evil villain in the book!"

Emma glared harder, in a way that said; Shut up Anna! Just tell me where Gabby is!

"Ok, ok, grumpy guts, Gabby's in Jennifer's office, having one-on-one consoling or whatever crap they call it!" I told her.

Emma stopped glaring and went back to packing quietly. I fiddled with my hair for a few minutes, but eventually gave up, a glance at the clock told me it was 11:30 am so I decided that it was close enough to lunch to have something to eat.

"I'm going to eat now, you coming?" I asked Emma.

Emma nodded and stood up, so we headed downstairs for lunch.

I grabbed a packet of Quavers and a sandwich from the pile that had been left on the table. We had learned pretty quickly that there were no hot meals to be expected; the cook was only in for breakfast and tea, so the staff bought sandwiches from the nearby co-op.

We were in the middle of eating when a boy my and Emma's age walked in. He had a mop of brown hair that flopped over his eyes that were a lush hazel colour that all the girls in the books instantly fall in love with. Just the thought made me want to gag.

"Hey, mind if I sit here?" He asked. I scrutinised him, and realised that he was not new, I'd seen him around here before, but he hadn't been around long enough to get allocated a school.

"Sure, you can sit here," I said after a couple of moments.

He sat down and turned to us, "My parents died in a plane crash a couple of years back, and I've been swapping foster parents ever since. It seems no one can quite handle me,"

Emma laughed slightly, "Our Mum's drunk off her face, so we couldn't be taken care of by her, and… well…" The thought of our Dad dying sobered Emma up, I guess, because she stopped laughing suddenly. I knew exactly how she felt; you laugh at something, and then feel guilty, because you think you shouldn't be happy because your Dad's dead. I told that to Jennifer once, and she gave this whole lecture on how I shouldn't feel that way, and I really wanted to say that I knew I shouldn't feel that way, but I do, so get over it! But I didn't.

The boy nodded sympathetically

"So, what are your names?" He asked

"I'm Anna, and that's Emma, we have a younger sister, Gabby, around here somewhere," I said, and then I stuck my hand out formally, "Nice to meet you Mr…?"

He grinned at my fake posh accent and accepted my hand, "Daniel, Daniel Whitness, but I prefer Dan and I've heard all the jokes, so don't try,"

I grinned, and immediately proceeded to ignore his warning, "So, Mr Witness, what evidence do you have to bring to this case, or are you it?"

Dan scowled, "Heard that one,"

I grinned and leaned in, "Really? In those exact words?"

He paused, "No…"

"Ha ha!" I yelled, "Therefore you have not 'heard that one'!"

Dan struggled to keep a straight face as Gabby skipped into the room.

"Hiya guys!" Gabby squealed, sitting down next to me.

"Whoa!" I moved away from Gabby and shielded my eyes, "Happy vibes. Get them away from me. Deadly poisonous!"

I got weird looks from Dan and Emma, but Gabby laughed, so it was OK.

"Anna..." Gabby asked in a tone that sent alarm bells ringing in my head.

"Yes...?"

"Can we play hid and Seek after lunch? Please? Pretty Please?" Gabby begged.

"Oh sh-" I started.

Emma kicked me.

"Cra- I mean- Crud!" I stuttered, rubbing my shin and glaring at her, "Jesus, Emma,"

Emma smiled smugly and I kicked her back.

"Fuck!" Emma swore.

"Emma! Don't swear! Especially not in front of the little kids!" I tutted mockingly, covering Gabby ears.

Gabby cracked up, and Dan looked majorly confused.

"Come on," I told Gabby, "Let's go play a stupid game of hide and seek, before Emma eats me alive..."

* * *

Chapter 21~ Emma

Anna lead Gabby out of the room like she was about to do some essay on an incredibly boring science project. I smirked to myself, remembering the last time that had happened.

"Are they always that crazy?" Dan asked me.

I looked up, realising that Dan was still in the room.

"Yep," I said nonchalantly, "Pretty much,"

Dan chuckled to himself.

"So," I said, trying to figure out something to say, "You going to school on Monday, like the rest of us?"

Dan shrugged. "Dunno really, guess I probably will,"

I felt really awkward sitting by myself with Dan. I glanced out the door, hoping for some sort of excuse to magically appear at the door.

"What do you do with all the spare time?" Dan asked me, "I mean, like, while the others are at school,"

I shrugged. "Not much, actually. I mean, I'd read, but, I haven't really got any books, and Anna is on our laptop a lot, messing around on the internet, so that's out. I just- just do nothing..."

I sighed and looked around the room. Dan nodded, understanding what I hadn't said.

"Yeah, it was like that for me, at first. I just couldn't do anything. If I did something fun, I felt guilty about it, 'cos my Mum and Dad were dead and I was having fun, but, eventually, I realised that they wouldn't have wanted me to live the rest of my life in mourning for them, so got up and did something with my life,"

I sighed. "I wish I could do something like that, but, what? I mean, Anna's all advanced with computers, she can-" I almost slipped up and told him about Anna's hacking, but I caught myself quickly, unfortunately, that didn't leave me with a lot to say, "-She can do...um... all sorts of stuff," I shifted uncomfortably, wondering if I'd given something away. Sheesh! I was getting really paranoid, just because Anna hacked sometimes, didn't mean that if I told Dan he would tell the police.

Dan lifted one eyebrow suspiciously. I bit my lip. What harm could it do? "Our Dad taught her how to hack stuff; she's been doing it experimentally for years. I know a bit, but I'm not anything on her. I guess the only thing I ever beat her at was Karate, but we had to stop going..." I trailed off, thinking dark thoughts about my Mum drinking.

Dan looked curious, but I decided to jump in and find out more about him, before he could ask anything else.

"What about you?" I asked, "What did you do with your life?"

Dan looked slightly taken aback, and I wondered if I'd said something weird, but then he gained composure and his unsure face turned confident again.

"Not much, really, I study a lot, and um... I do a lot of um... running and I... swim... a lot, at the pool with... um... by myself," He finished lamely.

Looks like I'm not the only one with secrets, I thought.

"Did the staff pay for you to go swimming, or your foster parents?" I asked, seeing how he reacted.

"Oh. Um... I saved up myself to pay to go once a week," He answered, but his face was definitely less confident.

"Really? Why didn't you just ask? Maybe they would've paid for you then,"

"Oh, I, um-"

Dan was interrupted with Gabby running into the room. "Don't tell Anna I'm here," She whispered, diving under the table. I sighed irritably. Hadn't I wanted this to happen just minutes ago? Karma is seriously unfair.

Anna walked into the room. Her hair was a wild mess from running around outside, and she had massive patches of mud on the knees of her trousers.

"You seen Gabby?" She asked.

"Um, Anna," I started, avoiding her question, "You have about 50 leaves in your hair and mud all over," I noticed some smudged across her cheek.

Anna shrugged. "Yeah, I was hiding in a bush," She told me, like it was something she did every day, which, knowing her, she probably did.

Dan burst out laughing and Anna walked over to the table, with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Oh well," She said loudly, "I can't find Gabby anywhere. I'll just have to sit down and finish my lunch,"

"Hey! You're supposed to be looking for me!" Gabby yelled, climbing out from under the table.

"Found you!" Anna yelled, "I'm hiding now! Remember to count to 30!"

And she ran out of the room.

Gabby scowled and announced, "Anna cheated, so I'm not gonna count to 30!" And ran out of the room.

Anna's laugh could be heard throughout the house.

"Well, I gotta get going," Dan said, heading out of the room. "I've got something to do."

"What?" I asked him, but he'd already left. I stared after him. There was definitely something weird about that guy...

* * *

Chapter 22

Dan rushed up to his bedroom and flopped down onto his bed. That had been incredibly close. He wished he had thought of a slightly more detailed background story, and hadn't made all those slips, but at least he had found out some more about the three sisters. So Anna's a really good hacker, and she and Emma used to do Karate. Emma hadn't been too overjoyed to be left alone with him, and the conversation had been awkward, so Dan guessed that Emma was shyer than the other two, who didn't seemed to care that they were telling a complete stranger about their life. Anna and Gabby both seemed to be incredibly at ease and, from the way Anna had ran around with twigs in her hair and mud on her clothes, and announced to them she'd been hiding in a bush, without even caring, he guessed that she would do pretty much anything if you dared her to.

Suddenly, he heard a bang from above him. That's weird, I'm on the top floor, and there isn't an attic, so someone has to be on the roof, Dan thought.

He opened his window and looked out, to see Anna hiding behind the Chimney. Well, I guess she really would do anything if you dared her, he thought.

"Anna, why the hell are you on the roof?"

Anna jumped and turned round to face him. "Jeez, you sound like my sister. It's far too dangerous, you could fall, and it's a really stupid idea, get down now! I'm hiding from Gabby, duh! Now shut up and close the window before Gabby sees you!"

Anna had to be the craziest person Dan had ever known.

* * *

Chapter 23~Anna

The roof had to be my most awesome idea yet! I'd originally thought of going and hiding on the boys floor, since Gabby would probably never go up there, but once I'd got there, I'd seen that, if you climbed out of the window, you could get directly onto the roof. Gabby was probably never going to find me. Unless Dan tipped her off. I would be really annoyed if he did. I sat back and waited to see if Gabby would find me, realising that there was moss all over the place, so my clothes would probably end up soaked. I grinned, although I loved Emma, it would be quite funny seeing her reaction when I came in covered in mud and wearing wet clothes.

After an hour, my grin was fading. Sure, I had anticipating Gabby taking a long time trying to find me, but, I was bored to death up here, and it was starting to get a little too cold for my liking. Suck it up Anna, I thought, and went back to studying the roof.

Half an hour later, Dan stuck his head out the window.

"Anna? Are you still up there?"  
"Yup, still alive," I told him.

"Maybe you should come in, 'cos it's freezing outside and no one can find you,"

"That's the whole point of hide and seek. No one's supposed to find me!" I said, avoiding the first part.

"But it's still freezing. The computer says it's about 0 degrees. Celcius. And all you've got on is a short-sleeved t-shirt and soaked through jeans"

"So?" I asked curtly.

"So, you could get hyperthermia."

"So?" I repeated.

"So I'll go find your sister and tell her if you don't come down," Dan seemed to understand that I didn't want Emma to have to drag me off the roof.

I glared at him. "You wouldn't!"

Dan was seemingly unfazed by my glare. "Yes, I would."

"Dick," I shouted over to him, but I really didn't want him to fetch Emma, so I walked over to his window. Dan stepped aside and I jumped down into his room.

Almost immediately, I felt my hands burning. You know when you're outside with no gloves on, and you're hands are really cold so you go back inside, and suddenly, it's way too hot, and you have to find something cold to put your hands against? It was that kind of burning sensation, all over my body.

I shook my arms and legs, trying to stop the horrible sensation. Dan rolled his eyes at me, so I scowled and marched out of the room.

I could hear Dan chuckling behind me but I ignored him and went to get a hot shower before all of the other kids got back.

Emma wasn't best pleased when she saw the state of my clothes, but Gabby and I had a good laugh when I told her where I'd been hiding.

Dinner wasn't all that bad once we actually knew someone. We got our diners and went straight over to the table Daniel was on, though Emma had announced that she 'thought he was a bit weird' and I still wasn't regretting calling him a dick.

"Hi!" Gabby said as she sat down with her plate of chicken wrap.

"Hey," Dan said, looking reproachfully at me.

"Just because I'm talking to you doesn't mean I forgive you," I growled, but his expression was kinda sorrowful, so I added, "And the next time you blackmail me into getting off the roof, I'm gonna bungee jump off it, so there!"

Dan grinned at me, and Emma and I sat down.

Emma picked daintily at her food, but Gabby and I wolfed ours down in a very unmannerly way. Dan attempted to eat the food but didn't really look all to hungry.

"How can you guys just eat this?" He asked, wrinkling his nose at the food in disgust.

I frowned, seeing a random hair in his food. Suddenly, I didn't feel like eating anymore. "Great, I just got put off my food. Next time we eat food Dan; don't show off to much of what's inside it."

Gabby grinned and grabbed my plate. "Since you're not eating it, I will."

She dug into my food.

"Sure, I don't mind you eating my food, Gabby, next time, don't ask, just take it," I said dryly, much to the others amusement.


	5. Fun, Games And General Immatureness

If any of you have any inspiring names for a title other than A CHERUB Fanfic, please tell me...

* * *

Chapter 24~ Emma

After dinner the four of us sat in the playroom. I read a book to Gabby, since she had decided that she couldn't be bothered to read tonight, and Dan and Anna were playing truth or dare in the far corner. Both of them were choosing dares, and I knew that, pretty soon, they end up doing some stupid dare and end up getting hurt, but, for now at least, I left them alone.

Gabby had read all the new books here (which proves how very little there were) and was back to reading all the old kiddies books. I'd just finished reading her The Gruffolo for the 3rd time since we'd arrived here, and I was pretty sure if she asked me to read her it once more, I'd die. We drifted over to where Anna and Dan were sitting.

"I dare you to... run upstairs, grab your pillow and whack someone over the head with it. In under 20 seconds," Dan was saying.

"OK! You count! On second thoughts, Emma can count; she won't cheat!" Anna said and dashed off.

I sighed and sat down. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10," I counted.

"11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17,"

Anna barged into the room, shoving several people out of the way and whacked Dan over the head with her pillow.

"18, 19, 20," I finished.

Gabby burst out laughing as Anna continuously hit Dan on the head. Dan grabbed the pillow of Anna and she ran to find another, Dan following close behind.

"Well," I sighed, "Looks like peaceful evenings are no longer allowed here. Come on Gabby, let's go upstairs,"

* * *

Chapter 25~ Anna

I sprinted up the stairs and skidded round the corridor, bashing into the wall as my momentum caught up with me. I darted into our room and grabbed Emma's pillow of her bed, laughing as I heard Dan hit the wall seconds later. I jumped out of the room and charged at him, causing the few people who had come out of their rooms when they heard the massive thud Dan had made, jump backwards in alarm. Dan saw me charging and ran for the stairs, with me gaining on him, suddenly glad that I'd been such a good runner at school. By the time we got to the boys floor, I was running next to Dan, laughing and hitting him on the back. Neither of us were really out of breath.

"You're a good runner," Dan said, picking up my cushion, that he'd dropped momentarily.

"So are you," I replied, dodging the pillow.

Dan shrugged, "A lot of practise and hard work,"

I snorted, "Dude, I run this fast to get to the bathroom first in a morning,"

Dan laughed and hit me on the head, before running up to his room. I ran after him, reaching his door seconds later.

"Dan. Truth or dare?" I asked in a deceptively sweet voice.

"Um..." Dan said, clearly worried by my tone, "Dare?"

"Ok!" I grinned evilly, "Stand on the top of the roof and egg the orphanage mini-van,"

"Where the hell am I supposed to get eggs from?" Dan asked.

"There's several boxes in the kitchen," I told him knowingly.

"I tell you what," Dan compromised, "I won't do it now, but I'll do it tonight,"

I grinned.

"Anna, truth or dare?" Dan asked me suddenly.

"Hey! It's not your turn yet!" I glared at him.

"Oh, is the great dare master too scared to complete this task?" Dan asked.

I scowled, "No! But you're cheating," I insisted.

Dan rolled his eyes, "So?" He asked, mimicking my tone of earlier.

"Fine!" I said exasperatedly, "Dare, did you really have to ask?"

"No. I dare you to help me egg the orphanage mini-van,"

"Dare accepted," I grinned mischievously, "What time should I meet you on the roof?"

"12,"

"K'ay," I said, and I grabbed my pillow, hit him one last time and sprinted down the hall, cackling evilly.

* * *

Chapter 26~ Emma

Anna walked into our room ten minutes after we arrived and collapsed on the bed. She grinned at me and told me that she was having an early night, before getting into bed, still fully clothed and pretending to fall asleep.

I frowned. Something was up with her. I turned round to find Gabby sitting with a book called Humpty Dumpty and Other Nursery Rhymes. She smiled angelically at me. I sighed and went over to start reading to her. This could be a long night...

As soon as I'd finished reading to Gaby I got changed and climbed into bed, exhausted, even though I'd barely done anything. I barely spared a moment to wonder what Anna was up to, but I guessed if it was anything like what she'd done in the past, I would most probably find out tomorrow.

* * *

Chapter 27

Dan waited until he couldn't hear anyone out in the corridor before sneaking downstairs to meet Jennifer. He knocked quietly on her office door and she opened it with just the same volume of noise.

"Come in, Dan," She whispered.

"Thanks, Jennifer," Dan replied, slipping into the room.

"So, are you going to recommend anyone from here to be a CHERUB agent?" Jenifer asked, getting straight to the point.

"Anna and Emma," Dan told her straight away, "And their little sister too, I suppose."

Jennifer nodded to herself. "Yes all three girls are very bright, straight A students, all though they lack the right attitude. Their ICT and PE teachers speak very highly of Anna, and their English and Modern Languages teacher thinks Emma to be the best of her year, and maybe the year above. Gabby too, is well above average, but mostly in Science and Geography,"

Dan nodded, "Emma let it slip that Anna is excellent at hacking; their father taught her the basics, and, apparently, she's been hack experimentally ever since."

Jennifer walked over to the computer and logged into a private msn account that CHERUB had set up. "I'll video call Meryl; she said she wanted to talk to us about something important anyway,"

The two of them sat in silence waiting for the computer to load, and Dan imagined Meryl on msn, chatting to her friends in text language and making video calls. The idea was just way too weird.

Finally, a box popped up on the screen and Meryl's face appeared, looking as strict and uptight as usual.

"Hello Jennifer. Hi Dan," Meryl greeted them.

"Hi," The two of them said in unison.

"What was it you wanted to tell us?" Dan asked.

"There is someone here who found out about an incident involving CHERUB. They researched it on the internet and I attempted to discourage them. When I tried to hack their account to find out who it was, I couldn't, however, they hacked into my account and found out my name and the initials CHERUB."

Dan sucked in a shocked breath, "Isn't your account, like, the highest security level there is?"

Meryl nodded grimly. "I set up a fake website that downloaded a virus onto the computer if anyone managed to hack into it. The virus was designed to get through all defences and I found out that the computer the hacker was using was at the orphanage that you're in. That's why I sent you here, Dan, to see if you could find out who it was," Meryl concluded.

"Well," Dan said, "You're in luck, because I just so happen to know who the hackers are,"

"Who?" Both Meryl and Jennifer demanded.

Dan grinned. "Anna and Emma."

* * *

Chapter 28~Anna

Dan was waiting for me on the roof when I clambered through his window at 12, carrying several boxes of eggs.

"Hey!" I said to him, grinning as he helped me bring the boxes onto the roof.

"Hey," He said quietly.

I picked up an egg and aimed it at the mini-van. "Bet I can throw more eggs than you can!" I told him, chucking it at the van.

"Bet I can hit it more times than you can," Dan taunted, as my egg missed the van and landed on a car park next to it.

I grabbed another egg. "Right." I said, and chucked the egg.

Ten minutes later, we snuck back into Dan's room and collapsed laughing on the bed.

"The van looks ruined," Dan laughed as he caught sight of it from the bed.

I giggled, "Can you imagine Mrs Plottersville's face when she wakes up tomorrow!"

"I'm not sure I want to," Dan chuckled.

I snorted, "I sure as hell do!"

Dan rolled his eyes. "What will you do then? Admit openly that you egged the van and her car, even if you only egged her car accidently?"

"No," I told him seriously, "I'd tell her I saw you standing on the roof at 12 at night, chucking eggs at her car deliberately,"

Dan laughed and elbowed me. I laughed back at him.

"You should probably get to bed, before someone sees you," Dan told me.

"Night, then," I said, getting up and heading towards the door.

"Yeah, goodnight Anna," Dan whispered back.

I headed out of the room, glancing back to see Dan watching me. I smiled and walked quietly back to my room.

* * *

Chapter 29~ Emma

I woke up early, this morning, and looked around the room. Anna and Gabby were still in bed, but I noticed that Anna had a massive smear of egg all down one side of her face. Well, it's her that's going to get into trouble for whatever she's done, I thought to myself, before getting up and shaking Anna and Gabby awake, since neither one of them had shown much sign of getting up and we had agreed to meet Dan in the garden at nine.

Suddenly there was a massive yell from outside, followed by hysterical laughter. Anna, who was awake by now, smiled knowingly.

"What did you do?" I asked her cautiously.

"I dared Dan to egg the orphanage mini-van, and he dared me to help him," Anna told me, grinning.

The idea was just so much like what Anna would do that I couldn't even tell her off. The three of us burst out laughing.

Dan was already there in the garden when we finally got down. He grinned at Anna.

"Did you know that someone egged the mini-van last night, Anna? Mrs Plottersville was very angry this morning. In fact, her screaming was what woke me up,"

Anna laughed, and Gabby sat down on the grass.

"Gabby, the grass is soaked," I pointed out to her.

Gabby shrugged. "I don't mind,"

I rolled my eyes. "Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you," I told her.

Anna and Dan were walking down the garden together and Gabby wasn't moving from her space on the ground. I was suddenly unsure of where to go. Anna and Dan looked like they wanted to be by themselves for a while, but there was no way in hell I was gonna sit down with Gabby and get soaked.

"Do you want to get breakfast, Gabby?" I asked, making a split-second decision to leave Anna and Dan in peace.

"Breakfast? Sure!" Gabby shot off towards the house. I rolled my eyes and set off after her.

* * *

Chapter 30~Anna

Dan and I left Emma arguing with Gabby and walked further into the garden.

"So...," Dan started, "What do you want to do now, since we've only got another day before the weekend, when the whole place will be packed, and then we're at school?"

I frowned. "I don't know, all my good ideas have been used up... I blame you!"

Dan snorted."Hmm... Why don't we..."

"Do something interesting?" I suggested. Dan elbowed me. I grinned at him. "How about a food fight?"

"Um... no? After last night I want to avoid anything that makes us look suspicious, and food fights count." Dan told me.

"Water fight?" I asked.

"_Way_ too cold,"

"Pillow fight?"

"Done that."

"Water balloon fight?"

"Again, too cold,"

"Thumb war?"

"Um... no, just... no,"

"Arm wrestling?"

"Uninteresting,"

"Football?"

"Do you see any balls lying around?"

"Hide and seek?"

"No, you cheat,"

"Sardines?"

"Never heard of it,"

"Picnic?"

"Huh? Are you actually suggesting something non stupid?" Dan asked. I elbowed him in the side.

"Ok, fine we can have a picnic!" Dan said, exasperated.

"Yay for me!" I yelled.

We found the others helping themselves to breakfast and told them what we were going to do. They were enthusiastic to varying degrees.

"A picnic, seriously, have you seen what it's like outside?" Emma asked incredulously.

I raised my eyebrows, "What is it like outside, oh wise and boring one?"

"Cold," Emma said shortly.

"So?" Gabby and I asked at the same time.

"The grass is all wet?"

"Meh,"

"Sure..."

"It's about to start raining?"

"Is it?" I asked and turned to look out the window.

It was. The sky was filled with grey storm clouds that seemed to hover exactly over us. "Well, that sucks!"

"We can always have a picnic inside..." Gabby said mournfully.

"Yeah, but it would have been so much better to have a food fight," I sighed.

"Sit down and eat your breakfast Anna, then you can continue dreaming about things that'll never happen," Emma told me, and pushed me firmly into a chair. I sat down and started shovelling handfuls of toast into to my mouth that had been left on Gabby's plate.

"Hey, they were mine!" She shouted.

"They're mine now," I mumbled between pieces of toast.


	6. CHERUB

Hmm... read the chapter name; it answers all questions

* * *

Chapter 31~Emma

We ended up in our room. Dan had found an old board game called Monopoly, and he was showing us how to play it. Anna had got frustrated with it very quickly, and had left us to it whilst she did whatever the hell she wanted. By lunchtime, Gabby had spent all her money and was rapidly falling out of the game, and Dan had conned us all 'til he had a massive pile of money sitting to his right. We headed down for lunch, hungry and relatively bored.

"Anna, what do you think school will be like?" Gabby asked as we sat down.

"Well, all the biiiiiiig older kids will pick on you since you're the new kid, the teachers will gives you masses of homework that needs to be handed in the next day, you will most probably get lost on the way to every single lesson, and end up with detentions because you're so late. Dude, chill, it's just school! The teachers will go easy on you for the first few weeks, and there has to be someone who likes you, so you'll get friends easily," Anna said, through mouthfuls of tuna sandwich.

"Umm... I wasn't listening to a thing of that," Gabby told Anna, looking disgusted, "I was too busy trying not to be sick watching you eat,"

Anna grinned, swallowed the last of her food and stuck out her tongue.

"You've got little pieces of soggy chewed up bread on your tongue and your breath stinks," I told Anna, and consequently got elbowed in the stomach.

"Anna! Emma! Can we play hide and seek in the garden?" Gabby asked excitedly.

"Well... I have got to... um do some homework, and umm... sort out my stuff for school..." Anna mumbled, edging towards the door.

"You don't even have any homework! And don't try to tell me that you need to do the crap from your old school, because I know you chucked it all the minute you could!"

"Well, we both have got consoling after lunch..." Anna pointed out, making a face. I guessed that, as polite as she was (she better have been polite) about consoling, she really hated it and thought it was boring. Probably pointless, too, knowing Anna.

"I don't care! You'll just have to be late!" Gabby announced, and grabbed both me and Anna by the arms, drgging us from the room.

Dan looked slightly relieved that he wasn't being forced into joining in too.

* * *

Chapter 32~ Emma

"1, 2, miss a few, 99, 100!" Anna exclaimed from the middle of the garden. She uncoveredher eyes dramatically, flinging her hands in the air, and shouted, "Ready or not! Here I come," And ran off in the other direction to me.

I leaned back against one of the branches of the tree I was hiding in, watching Anna disappear into the undergrowth, yelling all the while.

"I'm gonna find you Gabby! There's no point hiding from me!"

"You sound like something out of a horror movie!" Gabby yelled from across the garden.

Anna sprung up and ran in the direction of Gabby's voice, and a muffled shriek could be heard as Gabby realised she'd given herself away. I glanced at my watch as I jumped down from the tree.

"Anna!" I called, "You're gonna be late!"

Anna and Gabby's head's emerged from the bushes.

"Great," Anna mumbled, and dragged herself out of the bushes.

Gabby turned to me, "You're counting now!" She exclaimed.

I sighed and covered my eyes.

After 20 minutes, I started to look out for Anna. Was she deliberately leaving me to suffer the wraths of Gabby or something? Usual, she spent 10 minutes talking to Jennifer, then came back to entertain Gabby while I went to see Jennifer. That was what happened usually. I frowned, and checked my watch.

"Gabby, I'm gonna have to go see Jennifer now," I told her.

Gabby frowned, "But Anna hasn't come back yet, so I'll have no one to play with..."

I sighed, but spotted Dan through the window. I ran inside.

"You seen Anna?" I asked him.

"Nope, not since lunch," Dan told me, avoiding my gaze.

I stared him down a couple of seconds. "Right, I've gotta go see Jennifer, so you're in charge of keeping Gabby entertained," I told him.

Dan looked stricken. "Don't worry, she only bites if you refuse to play hide and seek with her," I said jokingly, and headed off to my consoling session.

* * *

Chapter 33~Anna

My whole body felt heavy and dull, my head especially. I groaned and sat up, stretching out my arms. I shivered slightly, wondering why I was so cold, then realised I was naked. I dived under the covers again, totally embarrassed, even though there was no one in the room. I sat up again with the duvet wrapped tightly around me.

To my relief, I spotted some clothes on the floor next to the bed. I slipped them on and looked around. I had no clue where I was. The last thing I remembered was… I frowned, trying to concentrate, and felt dizzy from trying too hard too soon after waking up.

I looked out of the window of the room and saw that I was high up in a building somewhere. Below was an athletics track, and lots of people were running on it.

I started to feel slightly freaked out. I had no clue where I was, how I'd got here, and why I was here. Maybe I was suffering long-term memory loss, or short term, personally, I can never tell the difference.

I looked down at the stuff I was wearing. Combat boots. Military trousers. Orange T-shirt. With CHERUB on.

"Shit!" I screeched, staring at the t-shirt. On it was a picture of a baby on a globe with an arrow. The words CHERUB were printed across it.

Once I got over my panic attack, I decided to get out of here. For all I knew, CHERUB was actually a bunch of gangsters who went round killing people and took their paper work for the fun of reading it, because they were all demented!

I tried the door, and it was open. Feeling ever so slightly bewildered, I walked out into the corridor. There were lots of people around, all wearing different coloured t-shirts, which had the CHERUB logo on.

I gave up with the gangster idea and walked up to one of them. "Um… Do you know where-" I began.

"Can't talk to orange," The boy said immediately, but tilted his head meaningfully in to the left. I turned and saw a lift.

"Okaaayyyyy…" I muttered to myself, and walked over to the lift. I pressed the button, and realised I had no idea where I was supposed to be going. The lift doors opened and I climbed in. A girl a bit older than me was in the lift already.

"Do you-?" I asked, but was cut off once again.

"Sorry, can't talk to orange," She said, but leaned over and pressed the button for the first floor.

The lift jerked a couple of times but eventually started to go down. At the bottom, the girl motioned for me to get out, so I walked forward.

I was in some sort of reception area; there were a couple of chairs against the wall and a desk in the middle. I walked over.

"Um… Wh-?" For the third time today I was interrupted. I sighed in annoyance.

"Hello, Anna is it? Your sister's already in the office," She gestured to a door and went back to work. I raised my eyebrows at her, but went into the office anyway.

Emma was sitting on a chair by the fire. She turned when I came in, and smiled in relief.

"Hi Anna," She muttered, quiet as ever.

A man was sitting in the chair next to her. He was about 50 years old, bald and Scottish.

"Hello, Anna, I'm Mac. It's nice to meet you, Meryl has told me about your extraordinary hacking,"

I shrugged indifferently and sat on the only other chair. At least these people weren't, as far as I could see, demented gangsters.

"I was just explaining to Emma how she got here, but she seems to how already,"

I glanced at Emma who bit her lip, "It was horrible, I walked in and saw you asleep on the couch, and then Jennifer started trying to inject me with a needle!"

I shivered, and tried, once again to remember what had happened to me. I had a distant memory of visiting Jennifer, but I couldn't remember quite what happened. Clearly Emma could, but she didn't seem to want to.

Mac coughed, "Yes, well, we had to keep you asleep for the journey; otherwise you might have guessed where you are. It is most important to keep this place a secret,"

I frowned, and added, "But I still can guess. Assuming it's the same day... looking at your watch, I can see that it is only 4 o'clock. We couldn't have been able to fly out of the country, we wouldn't have had time. I must have been unconscious for around 3 hours. I must have been here at least 30 minutes, so, unless Jennifer waited an hour before getting us out of the care home, which I don't see why she would; the longer she kept us at the care home, the more lightly that someone would have seen us, it gives us a limit of 2 and a half hours drive from the care home in Manchester."

Mac raised an eyebrow, "What if you'd been flown in?" He asked.

"I didn't see a runway here on campus," I replied.

"By helicopter, perhaps, since we _do_ have one on campus,"

"No," Emma replied, "There's nowhere to land it near the care home unless it's the middle of a street, which would attract attention,"

I grinned at her; Mac was about to find out just _why_ we'd been straight A students all our lives.

* * *

Chapter 34~Anna

"I can see you to take notice of a lot more things than anyone else would in this situation," Mac said eventually. "So, you must be wondering what CHERUB is, unless you hacked some decent information," He continued coolly.

I laughed, "Dude, I hacked information alright, but it came up in squiggly messes that I have yet to figure out,"

"Well," Mac began, "CHERUB is part of the British Intelligence, we train children to become spies, they go on missions and find out information to help stop criminals. Sometimes the mission turns rotten, and sometimes, it's a real success. We only put agents on missions if an adult cannot do the mission. Missions are rarely dangerous, and every agent can refuse to do the mission,"

"Yeah," Emma nodded, "But why use kids?"

I realised the answer before she had finished. It was why I had thought I'd get away with hacking.

"Because no one would suspect a kid, would they? I mean, think about it, I've been hacking stuff since I was six. The police come round the neighbourhood, knocking on every door, demanding to be let in to search for a computer or laptop that has been used for deleting their info. They always go straight to Dad's study, but they'd not even glance at our laptop,"

Mac nodded in agreement. Then stopped, "You've hacked the police's computers and deleted stuff from it?"

I shrugged, "Yeah, a mate asked a few times, since her Dad got nicked for selling cigarettes to try to make a living, she was pissed, so asked me if I could delete the notes in their files. What you going to do about it?"

Mac looked impressed, but I figured that if he probably didn't know much about hacking if he was impressed.

"So, you want us to become spies?" Emma asked, steering us back to the conversation.

Mac nodded. "Your personal records are very good; you get high grades in all your work, you are fit and healthy for your age, and, apparently, you used to do karate,"

We nodded to confirm this, and Mac carried on. "Before we can offer you a place at CHERUB, you will have to pass some tests, if you want to become an agent, you will have to pass the majority of them. Do you want to try?"

We nodded again. "Ok, we'll start at the dojo," Mac said lightly.

* * *

Chapter 24~Emma

The dojo was a Japanese style building where people trained in martial arts. I knew that much at least.

Mac stopped the golf buggy he'd driven us here in, and climbed out. Anna and I got out simultaneously, and headed up the steps into the building. But where Anna's stride was confident and easy, I tripped slightly on almost every step. Inside were a group of kids in those weird white suit things that people wear. I think Mum chucked ours out at some point. A woman at the front of the room was screeching out a mess of Japanese and English.

Mac led us into a smaller room of to one side. A boy and a girl stood there, waiting for us on the blue carpeted floor that seemed more like a mattress than a carpet.

"Ok you two, take off your shoes and socks. I'd like you to meet Kerry and Kyle. They're going to be your sparring partners. Anna can go first," Mac announced, "You will spar with Kerry, and Emma, you can spar against Kyle,"

I felt ever so slightly peeved at being asked to go after my younger sister, but mostly relieved; I hadn't done Karate inages, even if I was better at it than Anna. I went to one side of the room and sat down.

Anna walked into the centre of the mat opposite Kerry, and bowed. They shook hands whilst Mac read out the rules that I reckoned everyone already knew; 3 years of karate had not gone to waste for Anna and me.

Anna was given a gum shield and she shoved it in before Mac shouted, "Fight!"

Kerry leapt forward, her foot flying towards my sister's face. Anna sidestepped and grabbed the leg. Using Kerry's momentum, she swung the girl round and she slammed her into the wall. Kerry leaped back up immediately and aimed a scissor kick at Anna's chest. Anna ducked, but Kerry's leg slammed into her neck, shoving her backwards several feet. She coughed and massaged her throat. Coughing some more, she tapped the mat. Kerry helped her up and they faced each other off again. Well, Anna was still coughing, so she was kinda failing at that.

"Are you ready?" Mac asked.

Anna nodded. "Ok, fight!"

This time Anna got the first move, she stepped up and slammed her fist into Kerry's nose, and blood spurted out of it, before bringing her knee up and shoving Kerry in the stomach. Kerry doubled over, but managed to elbow Anna in the face and twist her arm around. Anna kicked out and rolled away as Kerry let go. They got up and circled each other, breathing hard. I could tell that Anna was losing; the arm that Kerry had twisted was hanging limp by her side; it looked badly sprained, but Anna didn't complain. I guess she was probably enjoying getting into a proper fight again.

Kerry lunged and caught Anna off balance, shoving her onto the floor. Kerry ran at her, but, just before she managed to kick Anna, Anna kicked her legs into Kerry's stomach, brought her legs up, and once again, used the momentum to send Kerry sprawling. On the plus side, she had stopped Kerry for a few seconds, on the minus side, she'd hurt her leg doing so. She lay on the mat, panting hard, until Kerry got up again. Groaning, she rolled over, and attempted to get up, but, what with a hurt leg and sprained arm, it was no surprise she struggled. She gave up and said, "I withdraw,"

Kerry helped her up, and she limped over to the side.

"Good luck," She told me.

I stood up with Kyle, bowed and shook his hand. I accepted the mouth guard and settled into a fighting stance; legs apart, arms in front of my chest, eyes on the opponent at all times. I remembered countless lessons of facing off my partners, getting kicked and punched and coming home battered and bruised, but, at the same time, I was giving my partner kicks and punches that left bruises for weeks afterwards.

"Fight," I heard Mac say.

Kyle decided to stay on the defence, after seeing Anna's talent with karate. We circled and I seized him up. He was about a year older than me, and probably had a lot more muscle. He was almost certainly stronger than me, and weighed more than me. That gave me one advantage; speed.

I stepped sideways once more, so that I wouldn't trip over my feet, and darted forwards, whacking Kyle in the nose, and elbowing him in the stomach before jumping back quickly. We circled again.

Suddenly Kyle lunged at me and swept my legs from underneath me. I rolled over, head ringing and saw him coming towards me. I stretched out my legs and faked an injury. Kyle saw his chance and came forward. I spun my legs around and kicked his legs, making them buckle. I pulled them back, but Kyle grabbed them and stood up, making me almost do a headstand. I kicked out and manage to hit his arm at an angle, he let go, but my legs crashed off the ground high and I felt too dizzy to take advantage of it. Kyle rolled me onto my back and pulled my left arm behind my back.

"Withdraw or I'll break it," He hissed through his gum shield. I could tell that he didn't want to take any chances; he was going to take control while he could.

"I withdraw," I sighed. The arm lock loosened and Kyle held out a hand for me. I grabbed it and pulled myself up.

"You two are pretty good," Kerry commented.

Anna nodded, "Used to have karate lessons every other night, but then, well, Mum started drinking, and we just couldn't afford to keep going,"

I glanced at her properly, and saw that her left arm was in a sling, and she had one of those ankle support things on her right foot. I smiled at her, and she grumbled something about it not being fair that she'd got beaten up when I'd got through this without a scratch.

"So," Mac began, "Are you ready for the next test?"


	7. Wow, More Fun Tests!

Chapter 36~Anna

Emma and I sat by ourselves in a classroom. We had been given 45 minutes to complete the test. Which was not anything cool or imaginative; it was just a plain, boring intelligence test. My sprained arm felt numb, and my ankle didn't have much feeling either, but it was better than feeling like I was burning in agony. The first few questions were simple and I got them straight away, but as I moved through the test I found that I had to re-read the questions more than once to even understand them. I may be a straight A student, but nobody's perfect.

I answered almost all of the questions, but I'm not entirely sure if I got any of them right.

Emma looked worried too, so I guessed she hadn't exactly breezed through it either. We were shown the cafeteria and we went to grab something to eat.

The food was delicious, and I ate all of mine as well as half of Emma's, since she seemed to have lost her appetite.

"I wonder what we've got to do next," She told me.

I shrugged, "Well… the first test had some excitement, so points to that, but the second one was somewhat lacking in the imaginative, exciting and cool department… hmm… that means that the next one will not be an every day test, since we've had one already,"

Emma stared at me, as if to say; Oh my God, you weirdo, Anna.

And I stared right back in a way that said; Takes one to know one, so get over it, Emma.

She grinned.

Emma went into Mac's office first. We were told we'd have to go in one at a time to complete the test. While I waited I looked for signs to tell me whereabouts CHERUB was, but nothing really helped. It kept me amused for long enough either way, and by the time I was called into Mac's office, I had found that the receptionist kept a packet of breath mints in the third draw down from her desk, she was very good at being busy doing nothing, and her middle name was Mazy. Ok, I made up the last fact, but still!

I walked into the room and saw Mac sitting behind his desk with a chicken in a cage on top of it.

I sat down on the opposite side of the desk.

"Anna," Mac said, "I want you to kill the chicken,"

I raised my eyebrows. "No way, why should I?" I wasn't going to kill a chicken for no reason. It was wrong.

Mac shrugged, "Because you'll pass the test if you do,"

I frowned, "Dude, just because I want to join CHERUB, does not mean I am going to give up all my morals and kill an innocent animal,"

"So, you're a vegetarian then?" Mac asked.

"No," I replied curtly.

"Then you are killing innocent animals Anna," Mac pointed out.

"But the meat I eat is already dead, and there's nothing I can do to help a dead animal, is there, but this chicken is alive, and I can do something to keep it that way, so that's what I'm doing,"

"Even if it means you won't get to join CHERUB?" Mac asked.

"Mac," I said patronizingly, "Two things; like I said before, I am not dropping all my morals to join CHERUB, and, you said yourself that if I pass the majority of the test then I would get in, not if I failed this specific test, so there,"

Mac smiled, "Ok then Anna, you don't have to kill the chicken. Let's move on to the next test,"

The next test, as it turned out, was an obstacle course. I know what you're thinking; wow, an obstacle course, big deal, that's going to be pipsqueak. Yeah, well, this obstacle course was about 50 feet off the ground. Emma was waiting for us there, and she looked nervous. I remembered how scared she was when we were 8 and we'd gone to one of those tree-climbing places a few years ago, and she'd ended up getting stuck, 30 metres in the air, on the zip wire. It had taken almost half an hour to get her down, and she'd not gone on any of the courses again.

I smiled at her sympathetically.

There were two beefy sixteen-year-old guys next to her.

"This is Paul and Arif, they're here to help you across the course," Mac introduced them.

We set off up the ladder of doom. We got half way there before Emma's fear got the better of her.

"Oh God!" She muttered, "I can't! I can't do it Anna!" She looked really scared and was glancing nervously at the ground.

I groaned, "Don't look at the ground doofus! Have all those corny movies taught you nothing!"

Emma smiled faintly and stopped looking at the ground, but still refused to carry on. Paul and Arif seemed to understand that I wanted to at least try to convince her to carry on.

"Look, Emma, we're halfway across now, if we turn back, we'll have to go the same distance to get down again, and it'll be harder because this was designed to go only one way. We can't get off here, so we gotta get to the end, c'mon man!"

Eventually, Emma got moving again, and I took her space at the front so that I could help her with the harder parts.

When they got to the part where the planks were spaced further and further apart, I was wearing out fast; my arm and ankle were really hurting now, and having to help Emma through it all was not exactly easy either.

I made the last jump easily enough, keeping my head straight forward at all times so I didn't look down; it would just suck to wimp out right before the end, and if I wimped out, so would Emma.

Emma took a little more encouraging to get across and she had to screw up her eyes and make the jump blind so she wouldn't chicken out.

I looked over the edge of the final platform.

"We gotta jump down?" I asked curiously.

Paul nodded and Arif demonstrated by chucking himself off. Emma went white and backed away from the edge.

"Ok, I'll go first then," I muttered.

I took a deep breath and stepped off the platform.

* * *

Chapter 37~Emma

She hung in the air for just a moment, like those cartoon characters that chase each other off cliffs; they just stand in the air for about a minute, and then fall. Anna looked perfectly relaxed and she hit the mat underneath with a dull thud.

"Emma, get your butt down here now, or I'm gonna climb over the whole course again to come push you off!" She shouted at me.

I looked at the edge and felt the blood drain from my face again. I remembered being stuck on the zip wire, clinging on to the harness for dear life, the ground looking much further than 30 metres. Even at the age of 8, I'd known that if I fell 30 metres I would have more than a bruise for a souvenir.

I bit my lip and forced myself out of the memory. You are not afraid of heights, Emma, I thought, do not be a wimp, your younger sister can jump off this, so you can too.

I jumped forward and felt the wind flying through my hair, tugging at my loose shorts and t-shirt. The small branches ripped at my arms and left tiny cuts, but it wasn't so bad. I bent my knees and braced myself to fall onto the mat.

The impact made my whole body shake and it took several seconds before I could move without trembling. I hopped of the mat and shouted up, "Clear!"

"Ok you two, the final test," Mac called from the end of the pool. "I want you to jump in, rescue the brick and swim to this end of the pool,"

I looked down at the clear water and bit my lip. We had gone swimming at school, so both of us could swim some form of front crawl, but it would be harder if we had to collect a brick and swim with it.

"Ok, I'll try it," Anna declared.

Before we could say anything else, she jumped in. No fancy dive or anything, just straight in and under. I followed her from the side of the pool. She collected the brick without too much hassle, and managed her breathing ok, but when she got about three quarters of the way there, she started struggling. She accidentally breathed in some water, and had to tread water for a minute to cough it up. When she could breathe properly, she set off again, but a lot slower than before.

When she got to the other end, she hauled herself up and sat at the other end.

"Well, I can't exactly say that was a great experience, but at least I know I can swim the length of a pool!"

I rolled my eyes; Anna would be willing to try anything as long as it was different.

"I think I'll leave this one, I was never as good as Anna," I told Mac.

Anna snorted and made her way over to my side of the pool.

"Dude, you were way better, you just don't like taking unnecessary risks," She told me.

"Well," Mac began once we- or at least Anna- were nice and dry again, "both of you did extremely well on the first test. You did tell us that you had been to karate lessons a few years ago, but I expected that you would have grown unused to the techniques you used,"

Anna raised an eyebrow mockingly, but didn't say anything.

"The second test was above an average teenager's, so, again, you passed. Now, the third test. Both of you refused to kill the chicken, so you passed,"

"What would have happened if we _did_ kill the chicken?" I asked, out of curiosity.

"If you killed the chicken straight away, you would have passed, but if you'd got upset over it, then you would have failed. Anna past the fourth test with ease, but, unfortunately, Emma, you scored a low pass. If your sister hadn't been there, I think you probably would have given up. Fortunately, you did eventually finish the course, so you have still passed,"

I let out a sigh of relief. I was worried that I'd blown our chances of getting into CHERUB by chickening out on the assault course.

"Emma, you passed the final test because you knew when to back down from something. You didn't think you could swim the length of the pool, so you didn't try. Anna on the other hand…"

"Jumped in and almost drowned!" My sister broke in, grinning, "Well, you gotta take _some _risks in life, because what's the point having one if you spend it doing nothing?"

"Yes well, we're giving you a low pass, because although you succeeded in getting the brick, you, as you just said, 'almost drowned',"

My sister shrugged, and I wondered whether she got her luck and sheer craziness from Mum or Dad. Or from watching people in movies doing idiotic, impossible stunts and actually pulling them off.

"So, I'm happy to offer you a place at CHERUB. You will be driven back to Harrison Care Home for Kids and you can give me your answer within two days," Mac said.


	8. Decisions, Decisions

Chapter 38~Anna

We had actually gotten in! I couldn't believe it. Emma and I sat in the back of a van on the way out of CHERUB, so we still couldn't tell where we were.

"Do you think it would be ok to tell Gabby?" Emma wondered.

"What's he gonna do if we tell her? Nothing," I pointed out, "And anyway, there's no way I'm leaving Gabby out of this! If we end up at CHERUB, she's coming too!"

Emma smiled at my determined voice, but asked quietly, "But what about Arron? What'll happen to him? Mac said, before you came in, that if we joined, we would no longer exist in the real world, so what would Arron know about CHERUB? Would he be allowed to know?"

I frowned, but I knew straight away that there was no way I was gonna let them tell Arron I was dead or something, 'cos that would just wreak his life; dad dying, then Emma and I, and possibly Gabby disappearing.

"We tell him, if we decide to go, I'm not keeping the truth from him!" I answered her.

"Yeah, I was thinking about that..." Emma mumbled.

"What?" I demanded.

"Well, suppose we had another option, less dangerous and stuff? I mean, it's not exactly what mum or dad would want Gabby to grow up doing; going on missions and spying on people," Emma mutters.

"Emma. Seriously? I don't think mum gave a shit about how Gabby grew up! And Dad wasn't that bothered when he taught me all about hacking and let me hack into everything, so he would probably be less bothered about Gabby learning to spy on people," I frowned at her.

"Well... I just wonder whether it's the best option to take..." Emma shrugged, "Just 'cos it sounds exciting, doesn't always mean it is," She pointed out.

I rolled my eyes, "And here I was, thinking you would approve! Did you here Mac at all? Great education blah blah blah! Quite frankly, it sounds like a nightmare! But, y'know what?" I asked Emma.

She looked up at me and sighed, "What?"

"I'd rather be living in that nightmarish hell of school and strict punishments, than live in the hell we're going back to, because, like I said before, we've been given a life, so we should make it worth living. If I just so happen to save some poor saps from an evil bad guy in the process, all the better!"

"Good fucking God, Anna! You sound like a bloody priest," Emma rolled her eyes at me.

"To joineth, or not to joineth CHERUB-eth, thateth ist thou's question... eth" I announced loudly, then stopped and thought over my words, "No, scrap that! It's Shakespeare! I need something preachy!"

"Um... you could set a bush on fire and hide behind it, then say that, it would definitely be biblical then!" Emma bit her lip. "Or would it be?"

I shrugged, "Meh, I have no clue what you are talking about..."

"Moses? The Bible? The freaking Burning Bush?" Emma asked, getting more and more annoyed, "You lied when you said you were paying attention in RE!" She announced, scowling.

"Dude, I got full marks on all of my essays!" I protested.

Emma snorted, "That you found online!" She scoffed.

I frowned. "Fair enough, you win, I copied them off the internet, but I read them still!"

Emma looked at me scathingly, "Sure..." She said finally, dragging out the word.

"Well, at least I know my English well enough!" I muttered to myself, "Wait! Shakespeare was the guy who wrote all of those weird plays right?"

* * *

Chapter 39~Anna

We arrived back pretty late, 11 o'clock at night at the latest. We headed down the drive together, my limping slightly from my hurt ankle, and Emma helping me hobble along. Just before we reached the door I stopped.

"What are we gonna tell them?" I asked, suddenly panicking; I hadn't spared a single thought to come up with a decent excuse.

"I have no clue," Emma muttered, reaching to knock on the door.

"Right then, we're winging it... Could you ask Gabby to make sure they dye my hair green for my funeral? I want something like; "I'm dead and I don't give a shit!" on the gravestone too,"

Emma paid no attention to me whatsoever and knocked on the door. It was answered on a matter of seconds by Mrs Plottersville. She threw open the door and glared down at us.

"And just where have you young ladies been?" She screeched at us.

I glared back at her, then, imitating her tone exactly, screeched back, "We have been visiting our dearest friend Ethel! She's come to see where we live!" Then, I waved at the space next to me, "See, Ethel? This is Mrs Plottersnille, she's a mad bat from down the road!"

Emma looked at me real disapproving, but it was worth it to see the look on Mrs Plottersville. Her face went bright red, and her chin jutted out at such an angle, I was afraid she might actually have broken her spine in the process.

"How dare you talk to me like that, you have no right! I have never been so insulted in my life!" She screamed, as Emma and I nimbly slipped through the doorway and dashed up the stairs.

I dived into our room, and Emma slammed the door behind us.

"What the hell was that about?" She demanded.

I shrugged, "We were winging it, I thought she was being insulting, I really hate her, there are various reasons,"

"Anna? Emma?" A small voice from the end bed startled us out of our glaring competition.

Gabby was sitting in bed, staring up at us in amazement. Her eyes were puffy and red, and her hair was a complete mess. Dan was sitting on the bed next to her, trying to cheer her up.

"Gabby! Oh my God! I'm so sorry!" I apologised, feeling desperately guilty because I hadn't once thought about how she might react to our disappearance. I ran over and hugged her tight, at the same time as Emma, so we ended up in a massive group hug. Gabby hugged me so tight I could feel my blood circulation being cut off.

"I thought you'd gone forever!" She sobbed, and Emma sat down next to her and tried to calm her down, and reassure her.

I turned to Dan. "Looks like I'm left to do the diplomatic stuff. Thanks for looking after Gabby for us," I told him.

Dan nodded, "What else could I do?" He asked, but I sensed he didn't want to go into too much detail over what happened while we were at CHERUB.

"Don't ever leave me here alone again!" Gabby told me suddenly, hugging me again.

"Jeez! Okay Mum! I promised, didn't I?" I told Gabby.

Gabby frowned, "No you didn't," She told me.

"Exactly!" I exclaimed.

"What?"

I sighed, "Why does no one laugh at my pathetic jokes anymore?"

"Wow, you're getting old round here Anna," Dan said jokingly.

"Where's a marker pen? I'm gonna draw massive bags under my eyes, and then die my hair grey/white!" I exclaimed, "Then you'll all be sorry for calling me old! Hey, Dan, do you have any crutches I could borrow? Nope, never mind, this'll do," I muttered to myself, picking up our old umbrella and turning it into a walking stick. I hunched over and shuffled my way back to the others.

"I'm afraid I'm getting a little frail in my old age," I croaked out, "Gabby, be a dear and fetch me some chocolates; they're good for my teeth. Oh, and Emma, please do get me a decent chair to sit in; my back's ever so sore,"

Emma rolled her eyes, but Gabby's face lit up, "Is chocolate really good for your teeth?" She asked.

I hesitated, then muttered in my croaky old lady voice, "Why of course, my dear, it's only sugar that's bad for teeth!"

"Wow! That's just awesome! I can eat chocolate whenever I want? Emma, you lied to me!" Gabby exclaimed.

"Um... Gabby?" Emma asked uncertainly, "Chocolate does have sugar in it,"

* * *

Chapter 40

_Just get back home, quick, get out of danger! They won't be able to get to you in Manchester; it's out of their reach. Once you're there, you can go to the police! Just keep on driving, no matter what!_

_It's started raining heavily outside; he grips the steering wheel so tightly his hands turn a ghostly white. He bites his teeth, and presses down on the accelerator._

_Just get home; just get home; just get home the thought becomes a chant in the back of his head, just get home, just get home! The chant becomes a shout, and he's panicking. Is that car following him? Why is that guy staring so intently at him? Shouldn't he be concentrating on the road? They were in the middle of the motorway, for crying out loud!_

_He looks sideways, checking for cars, before pulling into the fast lane. The quicker I get home, the better, he thinks. But then, suddenly, the car in front brakes and he's flying through the air, upside down, skidding across the motorway. The car lands on its side, smashing into the crash barrier. There's pain everywhere, and he can't move. He hears screeching tyres, and looks up, to see the car that braked in front of him suddenly speed up, and drive off. As it does, he catches a glimpse of the driver. His body turns cold. This wasn't a coincidence- they'd found him, and now, they'd made sure that no one would ever find out his secret._

"_I'm not taking this one to the grave!" He mutters defiantly, wincing as every movement burns with pain, "Someone will uncover the truth, I'll make sure they do,"_

_Blood covers his face, and the pain takes over his body. I'll make sure they do, he thinks, or die trying._

* * *

Chapter 41

A light knock on Mac's door alerted him that there was a visitor. He glanced up to see a man in a black suit walk through the door. The man was of an average height, and very muscular. Mac recognised him immediately.

"Jonathan! What brings you here, life in MI6 become uninteresting?" He teased, greeting the formal CHERUB pupil with delight.

"Quite the opposite, Mac. An unusual opening has come up. A man had an attempt on his life for some information on a very dangerous organization that he found. The organization has made it clear that they will not allow anyone to get a hold of this information, and they will kill anyone they suspect knows anything. We need a way to look after his children. I thought CHERUB would be an excellent idea, so I came to you to see what you said,"

Mac leaned in, curious, "Tell me more," He told Jonathan.

"Well," Jonathan began, sitting down, "His name was Michael Simons, and he has 4 children and a wife. 3 of his children are in care..."

* * *

Chapter 42~ Emma

"I almost wish she'd just barge in here and tell us off, rather than leaving me to imagine what sort of punishment we're gonna get for 'sneaking off'. It's just horrible!" Anna scowled, pacing around the room.

Gabby snickered, "I think it's rather funny, actually, you look as if you would scream if someone jumped around the door and shouted BOO!" She yelled the word boo at Anna, who jumped, than immediately tried to pretend she hadn't.

"Well," She said briskly, "It's been almost a whole day! I have every right to be nervous. When adults wait to dish out punishments, it can't be a good sign,"

There was a knock on the door, and Dan waltzed into our room.

I sighed, "What gives you the right to just saunter in anytime you want?" I demanded, glancing up from our laptop.

Anna just shrugged, "At least he knocked, I mean I woulda just walked in here,"

I rolled my eyes, "That's because this is your room, as well as mine and Gabby's,"

"So? Your point to moi is?" She asked.

"Moi? Seriously? I didn't know you even paid attention in French!" I frowned.

Anna shrugged again, "I don't, I just know how to use the internet,"

Dan grinned and sat down on Anna's bed.

"Hey," Anna said, mimicking my tone, "What gives you the right to just sit on my bed?"

"I am awesome, I don't need rights," Dan replied, and Gabby laughed.

"No, you _fail_, at being awesome, Dan, however, I am just brilliant at being amazing!" Anna said, with a fake smile and equally fake flick of her hair.

Dan rolled his eyes. Gabby frowned, "You forgot to mention that you're also hopelessly pathetic at making jokes," She added.

Anna scowled, "I'll have you know that I am the _queen_ of jokes, and I can out-joke anyone in this whole, entire, country," She said, emphasising the last three words.

"Who's the king?" I asked, raising my eyebrows mockingly.

"Your _face_, is the king, Emma," Anna said scathingly.

"Your _mum_, is the king, Anna," I told her.

"Really? I take it back, I'd rather be mere peasant than have to put up with her," Anna wrinkled her nose.

"Fine then, I'll be the court jester!" I announced, "It takes some skill to entertain the king and non-existent queen of jokes,"

"Emma?"

"Yes, Anna?"

"Shut up,"

"My pleasure,"

Our argument was interrupted by Gabby's rather loud grumbling stomach. "I'm hungry!" She moaned.

"Ok, fine!" Anna stood up exasperated, "You're the stupid Jester dude, I'm a weirdly hilarious peasant from medieval times, Gabby's queen over all foods and Dan's a random weirdo who walks into people's rooms in the middle of random conversations! Everyone happy?"

I grinned, "Yup, Dan's the weirdo guy,"

"Me too!" I get to rule all food!" Gabby said giggling, as we headed out of the room for lunch.

"Well, I'm not, I don't want to be a weirdo guy!" Dan protested.

"Hey, I'm a medieval peasant, it can't get much worse than that! And anyway, you're a _random_ weirdo _who walks into people's rooms in the middle of random conversations. _There's a BIG difference!" Anna argued.

I sighed and hung back from the rest of them as we trudged down the stairs. I wondered, for the millionth time what would happen if we did go to CHERUB. We would be trained as spies, and things would be a lot more serious, I supposed. I wondered if we would ever be able to just mess around and be kids again at CHERUB. It certainly didn't look like it. At least here we can act the age we are, I thought, there's no pressure on us to do anything we don't want to. Then again, there isn't any pressure on us at all, and maybe that's not the best thing. Gabby laughed at something funny Anna or Dan had said, and the sound echoed up through the corridors. I wondered if she would have the chance to laugh like that at CHERUB, or whether it'd be way too serious there. I frowned and continued to walk down the stairs. Anna was waiting for me at the bottom. She saw my expression and looked at me disapprovingly.

"You know, a wise man once said to me; don't think too much, you burn too many brain cells. Look, whatever we chose to do, we do it together, and we chose it because it's the best option. Right now we don't have many, and -you know where- looks like the best option we have," She pointed out.

"But while it's not the only option, we still have a choice, and it's up to us to chose the right one," I told her seriously.

Anna sighed and shook her head, "You think too much, Emma. I feel sorry for your poor dead brain cells,"

"So do I, Anna, so do I,"

* * *

Chapter 43~Anna

Gabby and Dan were waiting in the overcrowded lunch room. They'd got our food and were currently fighting off the reams of people who wanted to nick our seats.

I sat down with Emma, and noticed that the frown on her face still hadn't moved. She's still thinking about CHERUB then, I thought. Why couldn't she just chill out every once in a while? Gabby and I teased Dan continuously throughout the meal, but Emma barely talked I scowled to myself and tried to nudge her into the conversation.

"So Emma, how's life as the court's jester living up?"

Emma glanced up and let out a long sigh, "It doesn't quite live up to its reputation," She muttered. I rolled my eyes.

"Jeez, great, we've got ourselves a whiner!" I muttered.

"Ooooh! Shame on you Emma!" Gabby giggled.

Dan looked at us weirdly, and I grinned at him, "Still trying to figure out what the hell we keep going on about?" I asked.

Dan nodded cautiously. "Keep trying!" I said sweetly.

Dan scowled, "Knew you were gonna say that!"

"So did I!" I exclaimed, "That's so awesome!"

"Fail, Anna"

"Shut up!"

"With pleasure,"

"Stop. Freaking. Saying. That!"

and Dan went off to our room, leaving Emma and I to finish our untouched dinner. As soon as they were out of earshot, Emma leaned forward.

"Anna, we've got a day to decide what we're gonna do. Either we go to CHERUB, or we don't!"

I looked up at her, "Jeez, if I knew that this was all a carefully thought out plan to force me into giving my opinion, I woulda eaten quicker."

Most people had left the room, and it was so empty, I could almost fool myself into thinking it was still the middle of the week, and that I wouldn't be either attending school on the day after tomorrow, or starting my first day on CHERUB campus.

"I don't know what to do, Anna!" Emma said in a frustrated voice, "I don't want to commit Gabby to a life of seriousness! She's only 8, she's still a kid, for crying out loud! But, if we stay here, are we gonna get anywhere in life?"

I sighed, "Emma, to be quite frank, I really don't want to go to this new school on Monday," I told her.

"Meaning what, Anna?" Emma cried, and I quickly checked that no one was in the room, then I stared back at her.

"What do you think? Emma, I don't want to stay here for the next 4 years or so of my life," I told her.

"And I don't want to live a life as someone that I'm not, Anna! And I don't want Gabby to either!" Emma said.

"So you cast Gabby's vote too then? I'm outnumbered, am I?" I asked miserably; what I had said was beyond true, the more I thought about it, the more I felt I hated this place.

Emma looked away, "Well... I don't want you to... but, couldn't you... just-"

"Just leave you guys here and go join CHERUB?" I interrupted.

Emma nodded, looking away.

"Emma, although I don't like it, what I said before sticks; whatever we decide, we stay together,"

Emma looked up at me. "Thanks Anna, I honestly believe that this is the best. Not just for us, but for Gabby too,"

I sighed and looked away, hiding my tears of frustration, "Yeah, I really hope it is,"

Emma shoved her plate away, "Let's go tell Jennifer; we might as well tell her now,"

"Ok,"

* * *

Chapter 44~Emma

I could tell Anna still wasn't happy about our decision, but I knew she'd stick by it, like she'd promised; Anna wouldn't do that.

We knocked on Jennifer's door and she opened it after a few seconds.

"Hi, Anna, hello Emma," She greeted us, opening the door to invite us in.

We stepped in and Anna went and sat on the sofa, sprawling out along it. I stood by Jennifer's desk.

"We've made a decision," I told Jennifer.

Jennifer nodded. "Before you tell me, I want you to know that I respect the decision you make, and that I can understand why you might want to chose either options."

I nodded and Anna made a brief grunt that said she'd heard.

"We've decided that we're gonna stay here. As much as CHERUB sounds like a great place, it also sounds very risky and dangerous, and, well, it would be horrible to leave Arron like this. And, Gabby... I just don't want to put her in danger," I told Jennifer.

She nodded and smiled encouragingly. "What about you Anna?" She asked.

Anna propped herself up on one elbow and stared over to us glumly, "I've been outvoted, and as tempting as it sounds, I'm not gonna desert Emma, or Gabby, or Arron,"

Again Jennifer nodded. "I understand exactly why you chose not to go to CHERUB, Emma," She told me, "Gabby _is_ only young, and CHERUB missions _can_, very rarely, go wrong. Anna, I agree with you that keeping the family together is sometimes more important than what you want to do, and I understand how hard it can be to do what you consider the right thing."

We both nodded, and Jennifer smiled, "Well, I hope the decision you made is for the best, then," She added, and Anna and I left the room together.

"If this is the right decision," Anna muttered darkly, "Then I hate to know what the wrong decision is," I wondered if she'd intended to say that so loud.

Chapter 45

Mac summoned Meryl to his office immediately after Jonathan left. Those two girls, the ones that hacked your account, what were there names?" He asked her, the minute she entered the room.

"Anna and Emma," She responded.

"Surnames?" He snapped.

"Simons, Mac, Anna and Emma Simons," She said cautiously, "Why?"

"Because someone has requested that they be assigned the best protection the government offer, and we have been drafted in to help. This has something to do with their father..."

* * *

Chapter 46

Dan left Anna, Emma and Gabby up in their room. He'd played another game of Monopoly with them, and beat them all within 20 minutes. Sometimes, playing Monopoly wasn't all it was cut out to be though. Anna looked annoyed and upset over something, and Emma kept glancing at her with incredibly guilty looks. Dan decided that, if they were going to tell him, they'd do it in their own time; he'd just have to be patient and wait. In the meantime, he had been told to meet Jennifer in her office as soon as he could. He frowned as he headed downstairs. What was so urgent that he couldn't just wait 'til the night and sneak downstairs? Whatever it was, he was about to find out. He entered Jennifer's office after the briefest of knocks.

Inside, Jennifer was already at the computer, talking rapidly to Meryl on the video camera. Dan shuddered. It was still immensely unnerving to see Meryl anywhere near a web cam. It was like seeing a granny who could write a text message in under a minute.

The two older women stopped talking as he neared the desk, and he stared suspiciously at Jennifer, and at Meryl's image on the computer screen.

"So, what's going on?" He asked.

"Well..." Meryl started, but Jennifer interrupted, "They decided not to come to CHERUB," She told him.

"Whaaaat?" He asked incredulously. He could never have imagined Anna turning down an opportunity like CHERUB; she seemed willing to give everything a try. Though, when he thought about it, it did seem to fit with the way the 2 of them had been acting.

"Emma outvoted Anna," Jennifer told him, before he could ask, "And Anna didn't want to split everyone up just because she wanted to do something different,"

Dan nodded, "What else?" He asked, because he knew he couldn't just have been called downstairs so urgently for this.

"I'm sending down another 2 CHERUB agents," Meryl announced.

Dan frowned, "What? Why?" He asked. Their recruiting mission had failed, so he should be packing up and going anyway; there was no point sending other CHERUB recruits down here.

Meryl sighed, "The 2 agents will arrive together tomorrow, and will act as brother and sister. Dan, I want you to stay with the 3 girls as much as possible until they arrive, then, you'll each have to focus on looking after one of them, kind of like an unknown body guard."

"But!" Dan stuttered, what was going on? "It's just a recruitment mission! Why are we suddenly supposed to stalk Emma and Anna and Gabby?"

Meryl glared at him through the computer screen, "Think of this as an entirely new mission, Dan. These 3 girls are in an incredible amount of danger. If you keep an eye on them, as I've instructed, you might just end up saving their lives,"

* * *

oooooooooooooh, cliffhanger! don't worry, CHERUB isn't finished with Anna and Emma _just_ yet!


	9. School, I know, it sucks

Chapter 47~Anna

We had officially gotten away with our disappearing act. 48 whole hours had passed, and we had had no telling offs, no punishments, no nothing! Unfortunately, we had school instead. I pulled my crappy school jumper over my head and checked myself in the mirror. Too short tie. Check. Tights with holes in them. Check. Frayed jumper. Check. Hideous way too long skirt. Check. It was official, I hated school. I swung my backpack over my shoulder and headed out of our room. I'd skipped breakfast; I didn't think I would be able to eat anything anyway. All I could think about was how we'd had the chance to get out of this dump, and we'd given it up. I pulled my hair back up into a ponytail and the ends flicked left and right as I walked. The others were waiting for me by in front of the orphanage, and I smiled as I headed over. A few metres away, I could see a boy and a girl standing around waiting.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked, as I reached them.

"Your hair," Gabby replied.

"Yes, my hair is up because it is mandatory to have my freaking hair up. I have tights on because it is mandatory to have tights on. I am wearing a freaking below-the-knee skirt, because, what a guess! It's mandatory! I. Freaking. Hate. This. Freaking. School." I snapped.

Dan rolled his eyes and snorted. I turned on him, "It's ok for you, you get to wear trousers!"

Dan grinned even more. I scowled and aimed a punch at him. Of course, typically, I missed.

Dan stuck his tongue out like a 2 year old.

"Right." I said, dropping my backpack on the grass by my feet. "You. Are. Dead. I may be wearing a skirt, but that doesn't mean I won't kill you,"

I marched over and aimed another punch. Dan dodged. "Aim's a bit off this morning, Simons!" He grinned, and popped back up.

"No it isn't, that was simply a distraction," I told him.

Dan frowned, "It was?"

"Yes," I said, and slapped him. From behind me, I could hear a round of laughing, but I was focused on Dan.

"Jeez, Anna!" He muttered.

"Jeez your face. Quite literally," I told him.

Suddenly, Dan's fist shot out. I sidestepped.

"Aim's a bit off this morning, Whitness!" I told him cheerfully.

Dan stood up properly, grinning, "Still sure you can beat me in a skirt?" He asked.

I clicked my knuckles, "First to three. Friendly sparring," I told him, then launched an attack at him.

Whilst Dan and I play-fought, I saw the girl and boy who had been milling around outside go over to talk to Emma and Gabby. They talked and laughed for a few minutes, but I couldn't hear what they were saying, because I was too busy killing Dan.

I brought the sole of my foot down on Dan's calf for the third time, tripping him up.

"Dude, this game is getting old. Quickly," I told Dan, as he pulled himself up. I inspected my uniform carefully and made sure that there were several more holes in my tights before heading back to the others.

"I still think I won," Dan told me, walking along next to me.

"Define your definition of 'won' because if it means 'failed by so many miles that you're in Australia' then, your right, you did win!" I told him.

"No, my definition of 'won' is-" Dan began.

"The wrong definition," I interrupted.

"No, it's-"

"Still wrong?"

"No!"

"Okay, okay, no need to shout," I grinned. Dan rolled his eyes.

We joined the others again, and were introduced to their new friends.

The small red haired girl was called Elizabeth, and she was only 2 years older than Gabby apparently. The guy had a mixture of red and brown hair. He was tall and gangly and he was, according to Emma, called Andrew.

Emma took in my dirt smeared blouse and sighed at me. "Have you ever heard someone say 'first impressions count'?" She asked me.

"Yep," I told her cheerfully, "The guy who invented the internet passed it off as a myth,"

"Hmmm..."

"Come on then!" I said suddenly, "We've got to walk to school haven't we?"

Everyone groaned and Emma cussed under her breath. "I can't believe we have to walk! It's so unfair! All the other kids don't have to,"

"Language Emma, oh, and by the way, we have to walk because the school isn't actually that far away, and the majority of the other kids are younger than us," I pointed out, "Come on, it's good exercise!"

"Ok then, if you're so sure it's good exercise, I'll race you there!" Emma snapped.

"Fine with me," I said, "On three. One, Two, Three!" I yelled and sprinted off.

Emma was right behind me, and I could hear Gabby yelling at us to wait for her. Suddenly, Dan flew past me.

"You might be able to beat me in a fight, but I can so outrun you!" He laughed.

"Screw being a medieval peasant! I'm the queen of running faster than everyone else!" I yelled back at him, and sprinted even harder.

* * *

Chapter 48~ Anna

When we arrived at the school, there was barely anyone around. I jogged across the yard and found a bench to sit on. Dan was right behind me. I shrugged my backpack of my shoulders and plonked it on the ground. Emma walked up to us, breathing heavily.

"Dude, I may be a good runner, but even I have to admit I have limits after running about a mile to get to school," She panted, slipping down onto our bench.

Dan and I grinned cheekily at her; we were only just out of breath. Andrew arrived at our bench after a few minutes.

"Forgot my bag," He muttered, "Had to run all the way back,"

I grinned, "I won against Dan, Emma, Andrew, Gabby and Elizabeth! I rule!"

Dan shook his head, "But the word 'won' means 'failed by so many miles that you're in Australia''!"

I shoved him, "Shut up Dan, you're still a random weirdo who walks into people's rooms in the middle of random conversations!"

"Hey! I told you to wait for me!" Gabby scowled as she and Elizabeth got closer.

"We are," I told her.

"You weren't before!"

"But we are now!"

Our argument was cut short by a cough that was so obviously fake that it couldn't have fooled the most moronic idiot in the world.

"Hello, I'm Mr Marcose, I'm the head teacher here at Bakewarn Primary and Senior School," The fake-cough-guy told us.

I turned round to see who was talking. Mr Marcose was a massively tall man. He was wearing a tweed jacket (bleugh) and black trousers that just failed.

"Uh huh, nice to meet you and stuff," I told him- I really wasn't the type of person who sucked up to teachers.

Emma elbowed me, and I scowled at her.

Mr Marcose didn't smile, he simply gestured for us to follow him. We all hauled ourselves up off the bench and walked after him.

Jeez, this school is titchy, I thought to myself as we arrived at our form room. Gabby and Elizabeth had already been dropped off at various points in the tour, And Emma, Dan, Andrew and I were all in the same form, and there were only two forms in each year. Like I said, titch. We were one of the last to enter the room, by the looks of it; most of the chairs were taken, and everyone was sitting in groups, chatting.

The head teacher left us, and no one seemed particularly keen to tell us what to do, so we grabbed a few spare seats at the back of the room.

"Wow, this place sucks so far," I muttered to Dan, who was sitting next to me.

Dan shrugged, "I've seen worse, much worse,"

I rolled my eyes, "I bet you have,"

"What? I have it's true!"

"Uh huh, I'm so-" I was interrupted by a woman entering the room. She was short and fat, and she wore glasses. She had a blue skirt that went past her ankles, pink blouse and a mangy purple cardigan.

"Class! Settle down! Settle down!" She squawked.

Everyone moaned and headed slowly back to their own seats.

"We have 4 new students today," She continued, and I sighed. Great, so much for remaining inconspicuous for the first 5 minutes.

"Meet Dan Whitness, Andrew Cleary and Anna and Emma Simons. They come from the local orphanage,"

Why thank you _so_ much for pointing that out, you idiot! I yelled in my head. A few heads turned, but the majority of the class just couldn't be bothered. One guy in particular caught my eye. He was glaring triumphantly at me and Emma (who was sitting just to my left).

What the hell? I thought to myself, what's with the creepy delusional look? I glared back at him, making sure he knew that I didn't appreciate the stupid looks he was giving us.

The guy shrugged and turned back around. I sighed; this was gonna be a long day.

* * *

Chapter 49

"Meet Dan Whitness, Andrew Cleary and Anna and Emma Simons. They come from the local orphanage,"

Jeremy turned to look back at them, and grinned; Simons, that was a name he recognised. Wasn't that the name of the idiot that they'd killed just a week ago? That would explain the local orphanage thing. Jeremy tried to remember what his father had told him about the guy. 4 children; 3 girls, 1 boy. Jeremy smiled triumphantly at Anna and Emma; he'd found them! Now it would be him that got all the praise, rather than his stupid brother. He'd turn them in to his dad himself. Who cares if his dad killed them, after all, wouldn't it be him that would be the centre of attention, if he did get the two girls?

* * *

Chapter 50

"Did you notice that weirdo who kept staring at us the whole day?" Anna asked Dan as they walked out of school. Dan frowned.

"What weirdo guy?" He asked.

Anna, who had been looking around, stiffened, "The one that's coming over to talk to us,"

Dan turned to late; the guy was already at Anna's side.

"Hi, I'm Jeremy," He said.

"Yeah, hi, I'm Anna," Anna muttered cautiously. Dan could tell from her subdued response that she was feeling a little bit uneasy around Jeremy.

"Well, I hope you had a good first day," Jeremy told them cheerfully, and walked off.

"That guy gives me the creeps," Anna told Dan, shuddering, "What a weirdo,"

Dan shrugged, "There's millions of people in the world, you're bound to meet at least one nutty guy in your life," But he, too, felt incredibly uneasy suddenly.

Andrew and Dan headed downstairs together that night. When they reached Jennifer's office, Elizabeth was already there. Meryl was waiting on the computer screen, as usual.

"How was your first day?" Jennifer asked as the 2 boys came over.

"It was fine," Andrew told her.

Meryl wasn't one for small talk, and got straight down to business. "Have you decided who's going to watch over who?" She asked.

Dan nodded, "Of course, but you still haven't told us why we need to,"

Meryl scowled, "I have told you that their lives could depend on it, you don't need to know anything else," She snapped.

Jennifer stepped in quickly, "Any trouble at school? Anyone weird or unusual?" She asked.

Her words brought back what Anna had said; "Did you notice that weirdo who kept staring at us the whole day?". It was probably nothing, but, if so, why had it made him feel so uneasy.

"Anna complained to me that one of the boys kept staring at her all weirdly. It's probably nothing, but he didn't exactly look like he was just checking her out," He told them.

Jennifer and Meryl nodded, "You can never be too careful," Meryl told them all, "If even the slightest odd thing happens, tell us,"

It sounded like a dismissal, so the others started to leave the room. Dan stayed behind; a thought had just occurred to him.

"Meryl, we're looking after Anna and Emma and Gabby, but who's keeping an eye on Arron?"


	10. Disappearances

Chapter 51~Emma

"So, you coming over tonight?" I asked Arron over the phone. It'd been Dan's suggestion that we got together; we hadn't seen each other all week, and all of us were missing him.

"As soon as I can," Arron promised.

I sighed, "Ok, gotta go; school calls,"

Arron snickered, "Is my hearing going wrong? Did I just hear Emma say the word School without enthusiasm? Are you sure this isn't Anna?"

"Anna is standing right next to me laughing _so_ hard at your _very funny_ statement," I told Arron, and Anna grinned at me.

Arron chuckled, "Well, see you tonight then, Anna- sorry- Emma!"

"Bye, Gabby- sorry- Arron,"

"Oh come on! I sound nothing like Gabby!" Arron moaned.

"Quit moaning Arron, you sound even more like her when you moan!" I grinned.

I could practically _hear_ Arron rolling his eyes. "Yeah, see you sis," He told me.

"Bye Arron," I said, then hung up.

"Come on!" Gabby yelled at us from down the corridor. Elizabeth was with her, as well as Andrew and Dan.

"Coming!" I yelled, and scooped up my shoulder bag.

Anna followed suit and we headed down the corridor. We walked to school together, and everyone messed around. Anna even accepted a dare to go down and lie in the middle of the road. She got out of the way of a car just in time.

Dan grinned, "Good thing you rolled out of the way," He told Anna, helping her brush the mud off her clothes, "otherwise it would have put an end to a really funny game of Truth or Dare!"

I glared at them, "It already has put an end to the game," I told him.

Anna sighed dramatically. "Well that sucks!"

"Ya think?" Dan replied.

"Well, Emma does have a point, Anna nearly got herself killed," Andrew said.

I was so astounded that someone had actually agreed with me on something that I nearly tripped up and fell onto the road myself. My moment of surprise had gone unnoticed, though, and Anna was talking now.

"Nearly, being the operative word in that sentence! I didn't get killed, so it doesn't count as being dangerous," She argued.

Dan shifted uncomfortably, "Well, we can't carry on now; we're here,"

I looked up and saw we'd arrived. I also saw Anna looking uncomfortable. I looked around for the source of Anna and Dan's uneasiness, and spotted a guy heading over to us.

"Great," Muttered Anna.

"What's up with him?" I asked.

Anna shook her head, "Tell you later, ok?"

I nodded just as the boy reached us. He smiled slightly at me, but was mainly looking at Anna.

"Hi again," He told her.

"Hi," Her monosyllabic answer made me grin; Anna clearly disliked this guy.

"So, you guys walk to school?" He asked us all.

"Uh huh! More exercise and stuff!" Gabby cheered.

"My dad drives me here, saves time, and it's a lot easier,"

"Good on you," Anna muttered, and anyone who knew her could understand the part she left off; _now fuck off you lazy git!_

He shrugged, "Well, see you later," He announced and walked off.

"Weirdo," Anna glowered at him.

"I am so with you there," Elizabeth muttered, looking after the guy suspiciously.

"Yup, anyone who doesn't like walking is weird!" Gabby agreed.

"Hey! I don't like walking, and I'm not weird," Anna protested.

"Yes you are," We all grinned.

* * *

Chapter 52

Jeremy watched as the six of them left the school. He decided that he would follow them back to the orphanage, and try to grasp their daily routine. Who knows, he might even spot a golden opportunity. He set off at a very slow jog, about 50 metres behind the group.

As they arrived at the orphanage, he spotted the 3 girls run ahead of the group and throw themselves at a tall dark figure. He flipped through the notes he'd made on them. 3 girls, 1 boy. He guessed that the figure was their brother. He watched them walk in together, and grinned. By the looks of it, their brother had either walked or caught the bus here; it would be easy to catch him off guard if that was the case, and no one would be watching out for him in particular. He sat down on a bench a few metres away from the house and began to form a plan in his head.

* * *

Chapter 53~Anna

Arron was waiting for us outside the orphanage when we arrived. I grinned up at him and hugged him hard.

"Woah, anyone would've thought you guys had actually missed me!" He exclaimed, hugging the three of us back.

"We did!" Gabby protested.

"Lies!" Arron dismissed, grinning.

"Whatevs," I told him, smiling back, "It's good to see you again Arron!"

"Yeah, the same can't be said for me; I've been dreading having to see you guys again all week," Arron grinned, ruffling my hair.

"Like Emma said this morning, I'm laughing _so_ hard at your _very funny_ statement, Arron," I told him, and Emma grinned.

We walked inside the orphanage laughing.

Arron stayed for tea, and we told him all about our 'exciting adventures' that involved playing hide and seek, and playing monopoly. Neither Emma nor I said anything about CHERUB. Dan, Andrew and Elizabeth hung out with us too, since they had nothing else to do, and Dan managed to convince us all to play yet another game of monopoly, which he consequently won. Overall, by the time we had finished, it was dark outside and, we were all getting tired. Arron stood up and hugged us all.

"I'd better get going," He announced.

"Come on then, I'll show you to the door, since otherwise, you'll get hopelessly lost," I told him, and we stood up together. Dan, Andrew and Elizabeth said goodnight to us all and headed out too.

When we got to the front door I hugged Arron once more, and waved him off, "Come round next week, ok?" I yelled at him.

He grinned back at me as he walked out of the drive, "Sure, see you all next week!"

I smiled and turned to go back in, when, suddenly, I heard a shout of surprise and some squealing tyres, then a steady whine of a car enigne that was getting further and further away.

"Arron?" I shouted, worried. I couldn't hear any reply, so I ran out of the drive, barefoot and all.

"Arron?" I yelled even louder.

The street was empty; no one was in 100 metres of the place.

"Arron?" I screamed, panicking. What was going on? What had happened? I heard someone running up behind me, but I couldn't look to check who.

"Arron!" I cried, "Arron!"

I looked down the empty street once more, and, suddenly, I had doubts that I would see Arron again at all, let alone next week.

* * *

Chapter 54

Dan had slipped downstairs to see Jennifer, a few seconds after Anna and Arron had headed off to the door. He reckoned they couldn't exactly get stabbed or anything, right on the porch of the orphanage.

He'd just got into Jennifer's office, when he heard a shout. Jennifer looked up immediately.

"You didn't leave any of them on their own, did you?" She snapped, and he didn't need to ask who. He turned on the spot and sprinted to the entrance hall of the orphanage, Jennifer right behind him.

"Arron?"

He could hear Anna yelling and her running to the end of the drive.

"Arron?"

Dan flung open the door and saw Anna at the end of the drive, barefoot, looking up and down the street frantically.

"Arron?"

He ran up to her, but she didn't turn round. "Arron! Arron!"

He bit his lip. "Anna...?"

Anna shook her head, checked the street again, and then started to run down it. Dan caught up with her easily, and he grabbed her wrist.

"Anna! Calm down! What's going on?"

Anna shook her head again, and he saw tears on her cheeks. She pulled her arm, trying to run off again, but Dan made sure he had a tight hold.

"Arron!" She screamed desperately, ignoring his question.

Dan turned to see Jennifer, Emma, Gabby, Andrew and Elizabeth running out of the drive. Great; the whole crew was here.

"Anna, calm down, what happened?" He asked her, but she just continued to pull at her hand and look around frantically. "He can't have gone! He can't have!" She muttered.

"Who can't have?" Dan asked.

Jennifer took Anna's other hand, and bent down to look at her properly. "Anna," She said gently, "What happened? Where's Arron?"

Anna sobbed loudly, and looked down the street again, and Dan was suddenly edgy; it was dark, they were attracting a lot of attention and they were in the middle of the street. Anything could happen.

"Jennifer, I think we should probably go back inside," He said firmly, as Emma and Gabby raced over.

Emma looked from Dan to Jennifer to Anna and planted her hands on her hips, "What's going on?" She demanded.

Dan and Jennifer began to speak, but Anna interrupted them, "It's Arron," She sobbed, "He's gone,"

* * *

Chapter 55~Emma

Anna was hysterical by the time we got her inside. After her sudden announcement, she didn't say anything else. Jennifer led her into her office and sat her down on a chair. Gabby and I wanted to stay with Anna, but Jennifer insisted that we left. I was worried about Arron, but figured he'd be fine; Anna might have said he was gone, but until we figured out what the hell she meant, I was gonna go out on a limb and say that he was fine.

Gabby and I got ready for bed, and Gabby fell asleep pretty much instantly, but I lay awake, unable to get any sleep. After a while, I heard a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" I called out quietly.

"Andrew," Andrew called back.

"Come in," I sighed.

Andrew slipped into the room and sat down opposite me, on Anna's bed. In the dim light of my bedside lamp, I could barely see his face.

"Sorry," He muttered, "I couldn't sleep, and figured you'd probably be the same. Elizabeth was snoring about half an hour ago,"

"Yeah," I sighed again and looked back to the door."Did you hear anything more about Anna?"

Andrew shook his head, "I haven't heard Dan go back up to his room either, so I think he's with her,"

I frowned, "How come Dan gets to sit with her when I can't?" I demanded.

Andrew smiled slightly, "You realise _someone_ has to look after Gabby, and, as much as you might hate it, that person's gotta be you. Dan is Anna's best friend, so, he's the next best thing,"

"But Gabby's asleep now, so why can't I go down and see Anna?" I countered.

Andrew shook his head, "How do you think Gabby would feel if she woke up and found no you, and no Anna. Especially after what Anna said about Arron,"

I shook my head stubbornly, "Anna was hysterical, she didn't know what she was saying,"

Andrew sighed, "Emma," He said cautiously, "What do you think _made_ Anna hysterical?"

I hated it, but he was right. The more I thought about it, the more it fitted. Anna had been yelling Arron's name, and, if Arron had been there, he would have come back, wouldn't he?

"That's it!" I said, frustrated. I picked up my mobile and dialled Arron's number.

"What are you doing?" Hissed Andrew.

"I'm calling Arron!" I hissed back.

I could hear the rings now. 1 ring. 2 rings. 3 rings. Suddenly, the rings cut off. I took my phone away from my ear. Arron had ignored my phone call. I frowned. I didn't think that Arron had ever ignored a phone call in his life, let alone from his sister!

Andrew gently took the phone off me and put it on the table beside my bed. I stared at the phone. "He... he didn't answer," I whispered.

Andrew looked away. "He probably was only half awake; it's four in the morning Emma,"

"Right," I muttered, feeling exhausted. I slumped against the wall, "Night Andrew,"

"Night, Emma," Andrew told me, but I noticed that he made no move to leave the room, I wondered why for a second, but gave up and just curled up in bed and fell asleep.

* * *

Chapter 56

Dan sat next to Anna on the sofa, and patted her back while she cried. Elizabeth had slipped out a while ago to get to bed; one of them had to stick with Gabby and Emma tomorrow, and make sure that nothing happened to them. Andrew looked up from his seat at the desk. He'd been talking to Meryl for the best part of the hour, and Anna was so out of it that she hadn't even noticed. Jennifer was on Anna's other side, talking to her soothingly.

"One of us is gonna have to watch over Emma and Gabby, make sure no one tries to pull another stunt with with them while we're distracted," Andrew told them.

Dan nodded, Once Anna had calmed down slightly, she'd told them what had happened. Although she hadn't seen any of it, it was a good enough recount to tell them that Arron had been kidnapped. Neither Jennifer nor Meryl gave out any information about who, but Dan suspected they knew exactly who it had been.

Andrew seemed to realise that no one else could watch over the two girls but him, and he grimaced. "Any good excuses for being in their room?" He asked.

Dan shrugged, "Your room is the one above and you fell through the floor on your sleep, and landed in their room?"

Andrew rolled his eyes, "Great excuse Dan,"

"My pleasure,"

Andrew got up and headed out of the room.

Anna slumped suddenly and Dan looked up to see Jennifer standing up, still holding what looked suspiciously like a needle.

"Anna's had a shock; she needs some sleep, and so do we. We also need to sort out what we're going to do about Arron," Jennifer announced. Dan nodded, and got up off the sofa. He rearranged Anna so that she was lying down comfortably on the sofa, before heading over to the desk with Jennifer. Meryl was waiting for them, on the computer, and she looked stressed out and sleep deprived.

"What do you think has happened to Arron?" Dan asked Meryl.

"I have no way of knowing, but I suspect that it will be somewhat unpleasant,"

Dan frowned, "I'm not sure that we'll always be able to be there for Emma and Anna and Gabby, Meryl," He told her honestly, "Especially since we have no clue who these people are, or why they want Arron, and Emma, and Gabby, and Anna,"

Meryl nodded, "I understand, Dan, and we have been planning to take the three girls to CHERUB as an emergency, encase something went wrong,"

"So, when are you gonna take them to CHERUB?" Dan demanded.

"Not quite yet, nothing has gone too disastrously wrong yet," Meryl told him.

Dan glared at her in disgust, "Their brother has been kidnapped literally right under our noses, and nothing 'disastrously wrong' has happened yet?" He asked incredulously.

Meryl glowered at him, "Daniel Whitness, do _not_ use that tone of voice with me,"

Dan stared right back at her, "Jeez, sorry _mum_, next time, please do explain to me; exactly when do we count this mission as gone 'disastrously wrong'? When one of them has disappeared, or when all of them have?"

And with that, Dan stood up and marched out of the room. He couldn't believe what Meryl had just told him. It made him think, was she really all that bothered if four kids got taken? Did it matter to her at all?

* * *

Chapter 56~Emma

Anna still hadn't come up when I woke up in the morning. At some point during the night, Andrew must have gone back upstairs, because he wasn't in our room anymore. I shook Gabby awake and we headed downstairs. Dan and Andrew met us going down, and both of them had massive bags under their eyes.

I went straight over to Dan. "How's Anna,"

Dan looked up and smiled wearily, "She's fine now. Jennifer had to give her something to calm her down. She's sleeping it off now,"

I let out a relieved breath. "Good," I muttered, then, feeling bitchy, asked, "How are you? You look exhausted,"

Dan grinned harder, "Why thank you, Emma, I feel loved,"

I rolled my eyes, and Dan continued, "Actually, I am exhausted. I think I stayed up pretty much all night,"

Andrew came up behind us, "I think the only ones that got any sleep at all were Gabby and Elizabeth,"

I nodded, "Looks a lot like it,"

Gabby had gone ahead into the dining room, and she and Elizabeth were talking to each other with enthusiasm.

We headed over to their table and collapsed into the other chairs. Elizabeth looked us up and down. Finally she spoke, "Dan, are you sure it's the best thing to come into school? You look like you could collapse," There was a hidden meaning in those words, but I couldn't figure out what. I stared between them suspiciously.

Andrew got up, "We may as well join the breakfast queue before they stop serving," He announced. Gabby and I got up and followed him to the end of the queue, but Dan and Elizabeth stayed behind, talking quickly and quietly.

Andrew caught my gaze and grinned, "Those two clearly have something on their minds. I thought it was best we left them to it, give them some space,"

I smiled, "Suppose so,"

A few seconds Dan got up and headed over to join us.

"Elizabeth's keeping the table for us," He announced.

"Fine with me," Gabby replied as she reached the counter and immediately piled her plate high, "Note to self; the food at school just does _not_ cut it,"

I rolled my eyes, picked up a few slices of toast before heading back to the table. Elizabeth smiled up at me as I sat down. "You look really bad,"

I shrugged, "Unlike some people, I got some sleep, so I'm better off than them,"

Elizabeth grinned at me, "Don't think that I can't see you yawning Emma!" She mock scolded.

I shrugged and yawned outright. Andrew sat down beside me and yawned too.

"Quit yawning!" Dan complained, "You're making me want to yawn!"

"Yeah!" Gabby complained, plonking a massive plate of food.

"At least Dan has an excuse to yawn," I pointed out to her.

Gabby scowled, "So? I have an excuse to complain!"

"And anyway," Elizabeth cut in, "Dan's taking the day off school,"

I looked up in surprise, and saw Dan grimace at Elizabeth, who stared back patronisingly.

Dan gave up, and glanced away, "Yeah, I guess, I'm really tired anyway,"

Andrew glanced at his watch and stood up, "Come on, you guys, we're gonna be late!"

Gabby sighed and looked longingly at the remains of her food, "We need to start eating earlier," She muttered.

We arrived at school with minutes to spare, and, after dropping Gabby and Elizabeth off at their various form rooms, Andrew and I headed to our own. We grabbed our usual seats at the back of the class seconds before the teacher came in. I yawned again and leaned on the back of my chair. This was gonna be a hard, long, immensely boring day, especially after what was happening back at the orphanage...

* * *

Chapter 57~Emma

We got home later than usual, after having to practically drag Gabby away from school; they'd been doing cooking. Anna and Dan were waiting for us by the door. Anna smiled and hugged us both, but didn't say much else. Dan was every bit as subdued too.

"Don't worry, Anna, I've got all of your work with me," I teased her.

Anna groaned, but didn't say anything. I glanced at Dan, who made a face, "She's been like this all day," He muttered to me as I went past.

I bit my lip and looked Anna, who was trudging up the stairs in front of us.

"Dude, the word 'subdued' is _way_ too much of an understatement for Anna," Gabby whispered to me as we followed Anna up the stairs.

I smiled down at Gabby, "Ya think?"

The other three were whispering furiously behind our backs, but I decided to leave them to it; I was more worried about Anna.

Dan pulled me to one side as the others went into the room.

"About Arron..." He started, biting his lip and looking down.

"What is it?" I sighed.

"The school rang up a few hours ago. He didn't go to school today, and, when they rang the mate he was staying with, he apparently didn't go home last night, either," Dan burst out.

I felt the blood drain from my face. "So, so it's true then, isn't it, what Anna said last night?" I slipped down onto the floor, my legs no longer able to hold my weight. "Oh God," I muttered.

Where was Arron now, I thought, what had happened to him? If he'd been kidnapped, then why?

Dan attempted a smile, "Come on," He said, offering me his hand, "Gabby will wonder where you've got to,"

I grabbed his outstretched hand and hauled myself back up. I know why Anna is acting so glum now, I thought to myself, as I entered our room. And although I was smiling as I walked up to Gabby, I felt hollow inside.

* * *

Chapter 59

Dan watched Anna and Emma carefully the next morning. Neither girl seemed to have got much sleep, he decided, and, although Emma joined in the conversation as regularly as possible, Anna didn't say a word. He frowned, and wondered how long Anna's word strike was going to last.

Breakfast went quickly, and slightly awkwardly, and Dan realised that they usually relied on Anna to give them something to talk about. Take away Anna, and we're left with a bunch of people with no clue what to do. He decided he now had new respects for anyone who could make a conversation flow as quickly and as easily as Anna could.

The walk to school was much the same; a few attempts to start a conversation that lasted less than a minute.

By the time they all arrived at school, the atmosphere was gloomy and miserable. Dan sighed and looked around the form room as they entered. He stiffened as he saw Jeremy grinning at them knowingly, and his uneasy feeling about the boy seemed to double.

Dan glanced once more at Anna and made a mental note to tell her to snap out of it at lunchtime. She was starting to look worryingly depressed.

The lessons passed slowly, with no Anna whispering jokes in his ear, and messing around with him while they were supposed to be working. Just when Dan was about to scream in frustration, the lunch bell rang, and there was a massive wave of noise as 30 kids jumped out of their chairs and headed to the door. Dan waited for a few minutes for Anna to get up, then he realised she wasn't going to.

"C'mon, Anna, get up," He prodded her.

Anna sighed and pushed back her chair.

"Are you ever going to talk again, or has your tongue been cut out?" Dan demanded.

Anna shrugged, and Dan scowled. He shot a desperate look at Andrew, who shrugged and glanced at Emma, who was standing meekly next to him, as if to say; don't look at me, I've got problems of my own.

The 4 of them headed down the corridor to the lunch hall and grabbed some food and a table. Emma volunteered to grab some knives and forks, and she dragged Anna along after her. As soon as Dan and Andrew were out of ear shot, he could see her talking to Anna. Dan sighed and turned back to Andrew.

"Looks like Emma's at least _trying_ to snap out of it," He told him.

"Yeah, that's better than both of them mooching round like depressed mourners." Andrew smiled.

Dan looked up to see Jeremy walk over to their table. Dan could see his arrogant smile from 10 metres away.

"How are Anna and Emma?" Jeremy asked as he got closer, but his tone indicated that he, quite frankly, couldn't care less about either of them. Jeremy grinned, "Are they missing their precious Arron?" He taunted.

Dan's head snapped up, "What?" He demanded. "What do you know about Arron?"

Andrew was glaring at Jeremy too, and the hatred that showed on both of the boy's faces was crystal clear to Jeremy, but it didn't bother him.

"Why do you want to know? Does your oh-so-secret crime-busting organization not know what's happening? Or maybe they do, Dan, maybe they're just not telling you," Jeremy sneered, and Dan clenched his fists.

"What do you know about us?" He snarled back.

Jeremy grinned, "Enough. Your here to look after Anna and Emma, aren't you?"

Jeremy didn't wait for a reply; he knew he was right. His dad had told him all about this stupid crime stopping agency that used kids last night. He knew all he needed to know, but he wanted to make sure Dan and Andrew knew it too.

"You know," He leaned close up to Dan, "You won't always be able to protect them, and that one day you don't, we'll be waiting, and Anna and Emma will play right. Into. Our. Hands." He finished, grinning triumphantly.

Dan wanted to smack the idiot until he was black and blue, but before he could even get up, Jeremy looked behind him.

"Better go, wouldn't want your _girlfriends_ finding out our little secrets, would we?" And he stood up and walked away.

Emma and Anna sat back down, and Emma looked at the astonished, infuriated faces of the two boys, "What just happened?" She asked nervously.

Something very, really, incredibly bad, Dan wanted to say, but one look at Anna's depressed face shut him up. It probably wasn't the best thing to tell them that they knew who had taken Arron...

* * *

ooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhh Jeremy knows about CHERUB, not good! Arron's dissapeared, Anna's majorly depressed and no one has a clue what to do...

things certainly aren't going well for Anna and Emma!


	11. Trouble, With A Capital T

sorry, short... chapter thingie... I'll write more soon!

* * *

Chapter 60~Anna

School was incredibly boring, and it made me wonder if it had always been this dull, and I'd only just realised, or if I had once actually been interested. I wasn't entirely sure that I was bothered. I didn't talk at all today, either, which was a bit unlike me (ok, a _lot_ unlike me) and both Emma and Dan both tried to get me to 'snap out of it' but I just couldn't. All I could think about was what might've happened to Arron. I shivered again, and immediately regretted it. 5 pairs of worried eyes turned at once to me.

"Are you ok, Anna, are you cold or something?" Dan asked.

I shook my head. I didn't think I was cold. Or was I? My head hurt from thinking too much, and I could barely keep my eyes open, but I didn't say anything; I didn't want to talk, and I didn't want to make them worried. I was making them worried anyway, I knew, because I wasn't talking. I felt hollow inside, just like I had done ever since I'd ran out onto the empty street. Where was Arron? What was happening to him? I shivered again, involuntarily, and mentally cursed myself as it attracted the attention of my friends and family.

"I'm gonna get a blanket," Dan announced, getting up, and I wanted to snap at him that I wasn't cold and why couldn't he just leave me the freaking hell alone? But I couldn't, and just like before, my anger and sorrow seemed to give way to nothingness.

Dan came back over to our spot on the floor, holding my duvet. He wrapped it round me, and I immediately felt warmer. Maybe I was cold... I thought to myself. I felt overwhelmingly tired, now that I was warm again, and I leaned on Dan's shoulder as I closed my eyes. I'll just rest for a few seconds, I thought, just one or two...

I fell asleep almost immediately, but it wasn't peaceful. I dreamt of Arron being tortured, or killed, and I was terrified that it was actually real, that Arron was dead right now. I woke up in the dark, screaming, and felt Emma trying to calm me down.

"It's ok, Anna, everything's fine, calm down, you're safe, everything's fine," She muttered. I wanted to scream at her that Arron wasn't fine, and he was missing, he wasn't safe, even if we were, but I couldn't.

After a few minutes, I calmed down enough to look around, and saw that Dan, Andrew and Elizabeth were camping out on the floor of our room.

Dan smiled half-heartedly, "Slumber party," He explained, and I blushed.

Great, I had woke up screaming in front of everyone then, hadn't I? But I was too tired to care. I flopped back onto my bed and fell asleep again instantly.

I must have better dreams this time, because when I woke up, I wasn't screaming, and it was light outside. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and looked around the room. Everyone else was still asleep, so I had the room to myself. I got up and got dressed quickly into my school uniform, but a glance at my watch told me it was barely 6 o'clock. I sighed and opened the door. I may as well go do something now that I'm up, I reasoned, and headed downstairs.

No one on any of the other floors was awake either, so I went out into the garden and sat down on the small bench there. I looked around the garden and sighed, not 2 days ago, we were messing round with Arron out here, I thought. Where did he go? What happened to him? A sudden rustling from the bushes to the left of me alerted me that there was someone here. I stood up.

"Who's there?" I shouted, my nervousness forcing me into talking. What creepy weirdo hides in bushes at 6 o'clock in the morning? The bushes rustled again, and Jeremy stepped out.

"What. The. Hell. Jeremy?" I demanded, "Why are you in our garden?"

I started to back up to the door; I had that stupid uneasy feeling again.

Jeremy shrugged and looked apologetic, "Sorry, I just had to come here," He told me.

"Why? I don't know you at all, and you're trespassing in the orphanage garden. I should go get one of the staff," I told him, turning to go back inside.

"Wait! Anna," He called after me, "This is important! You need to come with me now!"

I turned back, sceptical, "Why do I need to go anywhere near you?"

"I know that you really don't want to come with me, but trust me, please, this is about your father,"

I didn't have a choice really, did I? I had to go.

* * *

Chapter 61~Emma

Dan shook me awake in the morning, a worried frown creasing his forehead. I groaned and sat up. Everyone but Gabby was up now. I looked around again, and noticed Anna's empty bed.

"What's happened now?" I snapped.

"It's Anna," Andrew replied.

"Oh, wow, I realised," I growled sarcastically, then felt like a moody cow. I took a deep breath, "Sorry," I muttered.

Andrew smiled back grimly, "Not your fault. It's early, we're all stressed,"

Dan looked around again then scowled, "I'm gonna go tell Jennifer. Someone has too," He grimaced and headed out of the door.

I looked at the others, "Could she not have just gone outside to get some fresh air or something?"

Andrew shook his head, "I don't think so, at 6 o'clock in the morning?"

"So what has happened then?" I asked.

"We don't know, Emma," Elizabeth sighed, "I wish we did,"

Jennifer and Dan came back then, and we all turned to them. Jennifer looked around the room carefully, then back to us, "Did anyone hear someone moving around in the night? Did Anna get up at all? Is there a specific time she was here, and then wasn't?" She demanded.

Andrew, Dan and I shook our heads, but Elizabeth spoke up.

"Well... I went downstairs because I thought I heard someone outside, but I couldn't see anyone outside, and Anna was still here then," She told Jennifer.

Jennifer looked up, "Has anyone checked outside, to see if there is any sign of someone coming and going again?"

Everyone shook their heads. "I'll go check," I volunteered.

"No. Dan and Elizabeth can," Jennifer snapped before I could move.

I frowned, "But-"

"Think about it, Emma. Arron and Anna have gone missing, it wouldn't be a good thing for you to be alone right now," Jennifer pointed out.

"Which is why I'll go with Dan and Andrew," I insisted, "And anyway, if my sister's left any sort of sign, I'm more likely to notice it than those two,"

Jennifer sighed and waved us out of the room. We headed downstairs and to the front door, but when Andrew tried to open it, it was locked.

I frowned, "How did she get out if the doors were locked?"

"Maybe not all of the doors _were_ locked," Dan muttered darkly, and turned around, "We haven't checked the back door yet.

We headed over to the back room and walked inside. The door was wide open.

"Wow, I'm thinking; big clue over here, guys," I muttered, and we walked outside. Dan and Andrew stood closer to me instinctively, and, suddenly, I was grateful for their presence; there was barely any light out here, and, although it was enough to see by, it gave the whole area a kind of tense and scary atmosphere, you know, like in the horror movies, where the main character's creeping through an abandoned house, or something, and they keep hearing spooky noises.

We looked around the small patio, but no clue with a massive arrow and a sign saying "She went that way!" appeared. Just as I was about to give up, Andrew pointed to out left.

"Let me have a closer look at those bushes," He muttered, and I stared at him quizzically. What did he expect to find in a freaking bush? We headed over and Andrew inspected the bush for a couple of minutes, nodding his head. Finally, he stood up.

"What's so interesting about the bush?" I asked, bursting with curiosity.

Andrew pointed to one part of it. Several branches were snapped in half, and it looked pretty squashed, like someone had been sitting on it. The, silently, he pushed the branches back enough for me to see several footprints. I looked up at him and frowned, "So?" I asked, "Anna and Gabby were playing in the bushes last week; it could've been them,"

Dan shook his head, as he began to understand what Andrew meant, "No, if it had been from Anna and Gabby messing around, there would have been a lot more branches snapped off, and there would have been more than one set of footprints. Whoever was here, knows something about Anna,"

"Great, we've got to chase down a freak who hides in bushes and then demand he, or, she tells us all they know about what happened to Anna, brilliant,"

"Actually, Emma, you won't be chasing them down," Jennifer's voice interrupted my complaining. The three of us whirled around to see Jennifer, Elizabeth and a very pale Gabby.

"Why not?" I demanded.

"Because Meryl's ordered that you be taken to CHERUB immediately," She answered.

Dan let out a relieved breath, "She agreed to then?" He asked Jennifer, and she nodded.

"I managed to convince her,"

Gabby stared from Jennifer, to Elizabeth, to Dan, to Andrew, to me, "Why do I get the feeling that you guys know something I don't?" She asked.

I shook my head, I might know about CHERUB, but I hadn't got a clue what was going on. "Major confusion, sis, I have no idea what they're going on about... apart from the whole CHERUB thing." I turned to Jennifer, "Isn't Meryl the one with the account that Anna hacked into?"

Jennifer nodded, "Yes, she is,"

Andrew stepped up, "But if the person that took Anna is who I think it is, then they already know about CHERUB," He told Jennifer.

I looked from Andrew to Jennifer, "Wait, so who here actually knows about CHERUB?" I asked, at the same time that Jennifer demanded, "What do you mean, 'already knows about CHERUB'? Have you forgotten to mention something?"

My question got ignored, and Dan and Andrew shifted uncomfortably. Eventually Dan spoke up, "Well, yesterday, Jeremy gave us a few subtle hints,"

"You mean what happened in the lunch hall?" I asked, remembering their aghast faces from yesterday, but, once again, Jennifer cut me off, "What do you mean a few subtle hints, Dan? Out with it, right now!"

"He came up and asked how Arron was, and then mocked our 'little crime-busting agency' before warning us that we wouldn't always be able to look after Anna Emma and Gabby,"

"Wait, what? Whose protecting us? From what? What. The. Hell. Is. Going. On?" I almost screamed.

Once again, I was ignored by everyone as Jennifer glared at Dan, "And, you just _forgot_ to mention it?"

Andrew cut in, "We were busy trying to keep an eye on them all. Remember the last time Dan tried to slip in and update you? Arron went missing! We didn't want to risk it, and we told ourselves we would just wait until we thought the three of them were safe before we told you!"

This time, I didn't wait for Jennifer to cut me off. I stepped into the middle of their little triangle and turned to face Andrew and Dan, "What is going on?"

Dan looked down at his feet, "We're not supposed to tell you,"

"Uh huh? Really? Well that's just great, isn't it? 'Cos for all I know, if I even go to the freaking _toilet_, I'm gonna get kidnapped!"

"It doesn't matter right now!" Jennifer snapped, pushing us all into the house, "what matters right now is that you guys get to CHERUB campus as quickly as possible,"

"Why should we?" I snapped, glaring at her.

"Because if you don't, then there's every possibility that you'll be killed,"

Well, that sure as hell got me moving.


	12. Returning To CHERUB

sorry I took so long to post this chapter, I developed a serious case of temporary writers block... oh well, here it is! the chapter that you've all (hopefully) been waiting for!

* * *

Chapter 62~Anna

"Ok, seriously Jeremy, I need to get back, like, right now, before anyone notices I'm missing. Just tell me about my dad!" I snapped at him, frustrated.

We were completely lost in a maze of alleys, and, from what my watch told me, it was nearly 7 o'clock. I wanted to get back before anyone noticed I was missing, and at this rate, it was gonna take me all day find my way out of this place!

"Just one last corner," Jeremy called back from in front of me. There was something in his voice that made me nervous. A faint note of triumph, or something, and I suddenly wondered just why the hell I'd taken off without letting anybody know.

Jeremy rounded the corner just ahead of me and said, "Here we are,"

I clenched my teeth in irritation, what was so special about this place? I thought to myself, it's just as good as anywhere else, why won't he jus- My train of thought stopped short as I rounded the corner, to find a dead end and several beefy men waiting for me. Jeremy was standing in the middle of them, grinning, "That's her, she's Anna Simons," He told the guys, who immediately began to advance on me. I glared at Jeremy.

"_So_ not cool, Jeremy!" I spat at him in disgust, and then I turned around and ran for it.

I dived round the corner just in front of the men and thanked God that I was a good runner. Unfortunately, I thought to myself as I arrived at a junction in the alleys, I don't have a good attention span at all, so I have no clue how to get out of here. I turned left and sprinted on. I could hear heavy footfalls behind me, and the heavy breathing of several men. I didn't dare look behind to see how close they were. If I can't find the way back out of here, I thought, then the only way I'm gonna escape is to lose these idiots! I arrived at another intersection between the alleys, and turned right this time. Come on! I yelled at myself; just get the hell away from here! Find civilisation, and find help! Why the hell didn't you tell anyone you were here you idiot!

Luck must have been with me, because when I turned the next corner, I could see a side street up ahead, and I knew that if I could make it there, I could lose these dipswitches in a matter of minutes. I put my head down and sprinted even faster. My shoes slapped against the ground hard, jarring my feet, and my breath was coming in gasps and pants. Just get the hell out of here!

I looked up just in time to notice the metal fence blocking my way. I skidded to a stop and looked back. Bad, bad idea, I thought to myself as I saw ten burly men running straight at me. I turned back to the fence, noting to myself that this scenario would make a very good Would You Rather for another day. Would you rather face a horde of charging rhinos (ok men, but still) or a 3 metre high metal fence with spikes on top? No competition, I thought; the fence. I grabbed at a section of it and began to haul myself up.

I reached the top just as the first guy started climbing. Gasping for breath, I swung myself over, avoiding the pikes in the top. As soon as I was clear of all the spiky things, I jumped. I hit the floor hard, and bit my lip to stop myself from yelping. I straightened up and winced as my leg began to throb. I began to jog again, but I was more tired than before, and my leg was injured somehow. I looked up ahead and realised that I wasn't gonna be able to make it that far. Fight or flight? I asked myself. Both seemed pretty hopeless. I turned to face the men and brought my hands up in front of me, in a defensive stance.

The first guy dropped easily from the top of the fence, and stopped short when he saw I wasn't running. I guess it wasn't everyday they met someone who was as delusional as I was. He recovered though, and charged at me. I threw a punch at his face, and then brought my knee up into his stomach. Typical, easy move, but it works every time. The guy crumpled and I felt a brief spark of hope. Which was crushed just moments later as another two muscled men advanced on me, having made it over the perils of the fence. I backed up a few metres, let them come to me, I thought, it's gonna end the same anyway; I can't fight all ten of them and win, but at least I'll go down trying. I lashed out at the guy to my left, and kicked him on the neck. It sure as hell hurt my leg, but the guy crumpled. These guys aren't made of much, are they? I thought to myself, as I turned to the other. I aimed a punch at his chest, but just before I hit him, he grabbed my fist in his massive hand. I cried out, and tried to yank it back, but he didn't let go. Instead he began to squeeze his hand shut, crushing my hand in the process. I cried out again, and tried to punch him with my free hand.

"God dammit!" I yelled, whacking his side over and over again. I could hear several thuds as the rest of the idiots made it over the fence, "Get. The. Fucking. Hell. Off. You. Idiot!" I screamed, punching him with every word. I tried to pull my hand free again, and this time he let my hand go. I flew back, my momentum throwing me off balance, and hit the wall behind me. Hard. The air was forced from my body, and my head whacked painfully against the wall. I gasped for air, coughing and spluttering. I looked up giddily to see the remaining guys advancing on me. I desperately tried to get up, to fight, or run, I don't know, to do something! I pulled myself up and leaned heavily against the wall. Jeremy appeared in front of me and grinned cockily.

"Wow, great fighting, Anna, too bad you're gonna die soon," He said, grinning like a psycho.

What is it with weird guys and getting kidnapped? I thought to myself, there's some sort of connection...

"I mean, your brother, he wasn't hard to catch at all, but, you, well, I gotta say, I wasn't expecting _that_ much," Jeremy continued.

My head snapped up at the mention of Arron's name, and the pieces of the puzzle clicked together. My face screwed up in hatred and pain, "You dirty little fucking bastard!" I spat at him, anger making my vision red. All I could see was that idiot's stupid cocky smile. I clenched my fist. I was gonna kill this jerk. I swung my fist and punched him in the face. "Take that you fucking bugger!" I screamed at him.

The men around us grabbed me and pulled me away, but all I could think about was how worried and stressed I'd been for the last 2 day and how it was _all his fault. _

I was so caught up in my rage that I didn't notice the beefy fist flying towards my head. I screamed, but in pain this time, and collapsed. My whole head seemed to vibrate from the impact and my vision got fuzzy. Ah crap, I'm _so_ screwed, I thought as I passed out.

* * *

Chapter 63~Emma

Gabby and I stuffed our most important things into Anna's backpack, and our school bags. Laptop. Clothes. Toothbrushes. Books. Money.

I had barely finished packing when Andrew burst through the door. He had a massive backpack of stuff and a smaller shoulder bag. I picked up Anna's backpack and schoolbag, then my own, and turned to Gabby, who was heaving her schoolbag onto her shoulder. I grabbed her hand. "Come on Gabby, let's go," I told her.

We headed downstairs and outside. Out on the drive was a van. The back was windowless and I could just guess this was our 'luxury' transport. The back door opened and Dan hopped out. He smiled apologetically at me, and took Anna's school bag off me. We climbed into the back of the van and dumped our stuff on the floor. Around the sides of the van were several seats with seatbelts and everything, and, on the ceiling was a dim but working light. I raised my eyebrows questioningly at Andrew, who just shrugged. I sighed and chose a seat to sit in.

Once everyone but Jennifer was inside the van, it was pretty squished.

"Remember," Jennifer was telling Dan, "Once you get to campus, tell Meryl immediately. We don't want her thinking you never arrived. Meryl will sort Emma and Gabby out with a room." Jennifer looked at me, "I trust that you won't try anything stupid," She frowned.

I scowled. What did she think I was? A little 3 year old?

"I'm sure she won't Jennifer," Dan reassured her quickly.

Jennifer nodded. "Okay, I guess I'll see you later," She told us all. She shut the van doors on us, and I could feel the van pull out of the drive. Something told me I wouldn't be seeing Jennifer ever again. I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts, then looked slowly from Dan to Andrew to Elizabeth.

"Looks like we've got a nice long journey ahead of us," I told them slowly.

Dan grimaced, "Yeah, real nice and all..." He muttered.

"So," I continued, ignoring him, "Now would be an excellent time to tell us exactly what is going on,"

Gabby crossed her arms across her chest. "Yeah," She growled stubbornly, "And it would be nice if you could tell us why Anna and Arron have been kidnapped,"

I looked down at her. Gabby was only 8, but right then, I swear she could've scared even the fiercest of bad guys with her adorably cute scowl.

The other three looked away guiltily.

"Well, feel free to start at any time. Like I said, it's gonna be a nice long journey," I leaned back in my seat and waited. It didn't take long.

"we don't really know why Anna and Arron were taken," Andrew admitted, "We got here halfway through all this, but, having said that, I'm not too sure Dan has much of a clue either,"

Dan sighed and shook his head regretfully, "No, no idea, but I suppose we'd better start at the beginning anyway..."

The van pulled up several hours later, and the back doors were flung open. We all blinked and covered our eyes as light flooded the van.

"Hello, guys, heard you'd be back soon. Dan, my man, how you been?" A tall, gangly boy greeted us. Dan jumped out and slapped high 5's with the guy.

"What's up, Liam?" Dan greeted the guy in return.

The others climbed out of the back and looked around.

Dan grinned and looked around, "It's good to be back," He declared.

"You won't be saying that when we get back to school," Elizabeth grinned, and hopped out.

"Elizabeth, I'm trying to enjoy the moment, go tell your boyfriend, or someone who cares," Dan growled.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Dan, Tom is your friend too, so you might as well go tell him yourself, bozo,"

"Uh, no, boyfriends have to be informed first, and anyway, Andrew's friends with Tom more," Dan argued.

Andrew rolled his eyes and helped Gabby and I out of the van. "Andrew?" I asked.

"Yeah?"

"Just how old _is_ Elizabeth?"

Dan, Elizabeth, Andrew and 'Liam' grinned, "Quite a lot older than you'd guess," Elizabeth grinned.

"Yeah, well I'm guessing you're not ten," I stared at her curiously.

"Dude, I'm 15 in a few months," Elizabeth grinned cheekily.

I did a double take. The others laughed, and Gabby joined in. "oh come on," I moaned, picking my stuff up from out of the back, "you didn't know either," I told Gabby.

Gabby shook her head. "No, but I guessed pretty quickly,"

She grabbed her own bag and shouldered it.

"I guess we'd better announce to Meryl we've arrived," Dan sighed.

"Can we grab some grub on the way there, I'm starving!" Gabby begged.

I rolled my eyes. Here we go, I thought.

* * *

Chapter 64~Anna

My head ached painfully and I groaned as I propped myself up against the wall. I looked around slowly, trying not to move too quickly because of my head. I was in a dark room. The only light came from a tiny window that was so high up it was practically on the ceiling. So I'm underground then, I thought to myself. The walls were dirty white, like they had once been clean, but had gathered dust and mud until you couldn't really call the colour white anymore. The floor was just plain cement, which, I realised as I discovered new bumps and bruises all over my body, wasn't at all comfortable.

Suddenly, I heard a scuffling sound in the darkest corner. My head whipped round, and immediately I regretted it, as pain lanced through my skull. I groaned and clung on to my head.

"Anna?" A weak, croaky voice asked.

My head snapped up again, but I ignored the pain this time. "Arron?" I asked.

"Oh, God, I'm so glad to see you Anna!" Arron gasped.

I practically dragged myself over to him and flung myself at him. "Arron! I thought I'd never see you again!"

I realised I was crying as hot tears trailed down my face.

"Hey, calm down, I'm still alive and all aren't I?" Arron shushed me.

I hugged him hard. "If you ever disappear on me again, I will personally arrange your death," I threatened. Arron chuckled weakly. "No promises there, Anna," He muttered.

I slumped back against the wall. "How the hell are we gonna get outta here, Arron?" I asked him miserably.

Arron took a long time to reply, "That's just it though, isn't it Anna?" He answered finally, "What chance do we have of escaping at all?"

I gulped, "50/50?" I asked hopefully.

Arron sighed, "If you say so, sis,"

"Wow, that's great then, isn't it?" I muttered darkly (note to self; when in trouble, sarcasm is a great gift!), "I'm stuck in a gloomy cellar with a brother gone pessimistic... Could things get any worse?"

The door suddenly flew open, and I gulped as a massive shape lumbered towards us. Answer to my question; yes, they can get a whole freaking ton worse.

* * *

Chapter 65

"Come in!" Meryl shouted from inside the office.

Dan opened the door and the whole group piled in.

"We arrived," Dan told her unnecessarily.

"Thank you, Dan, but I don't really think it was all that necessary," Meryl told him, glancing at the group of teenagers standing in front of her.

"Liam, why are you here?" She asked almost immediately.

Liam shrugged. "I was saying hi and stuff to Dan," He told her.

"Hmm," Meryl muttered, "You, Andrew, Elizabeth and Dan can go now," She told them.

"Awww, come on, at least let me say hi to the new girls," Moaned Liam, who was looking at Emma and Gabby curiously.

Dan grinned to himself as he imagined what Anna's reaction to that would have been. Most probably, she would have pointed out to him that he already had said hi, and shoved him out the door herself, with a whack from her backpack. The smile disappeared as the harsh truth of what had happened to Anna popped up again.

There was a great deal of shuffling and pushing and shoving as everyone tried to get out of the room. Dan was the last one to the door, but, just as he was about to leave, Meryl called him back. "Actually, Dan could you come back here?" She asked in a steely tone.

Dan winced, suddenly remembering the last time he had spoken to Meryl. He turned around and trundled back to stand in front of Meryl. Meryl paid him no attention, but directed her gaze at Emma and Gabby.

"I understand that you probably don't want to be here now, Emma, Gabby," She said, nodding to each of them in turn, "But, as far as I'm concerned, it's the safest place for you to be,"

Emma shook her head, "You're wrong about this being the safest place for us. Dan's already told us that they know about CHERUB, so they can probably guess we're here pretty quickly,"

"We have high security ranks and our location is unknown to even some members of the government," Meryl sniffed.

"But is it on any type of document on any computer?" Emma snapped.

Meryl glared at her, "It is, but I don't see how that could be a problem,"

Emma sighed, "Because files like those would take less than a few seconds to hack if Anna were anywhere near a computer. It doesn't take much to hack into stuff, you know." Her voice was frustrated, and she talked to Meryl like a patronizing mother. Emma stopped for a second, and then smiled as she found a way to give an example to Meryl, "Take your files for instance. Anna hacked them easily, and they should be well protected,"

Meryl's glare was icy cold, "Yes, they are well protected, and if you or Anna ever even attempt to hack into my account again, then you will be _severely_ punished,"

Gabby rolled her eyes at Emma, "Jeez! What did Anna hack this time? MI6? Wait, no, that was that other time..."

Meryl's eyes bulged, Gabby seemed to realise that her statement that had caused Meryl's reaction.

"Can no one around here take a joke!" She moaned, "Come on! I don't think Anna's got that far _yet_! Sheesh!"

Meryl recovered herself a bit and straightened up. "Dan, I've arranged a room for Gabby in the junior block, and a room for Emma in the main building. If you could show them there and show them the ropes," She asked him, like it was a request, but Dan knew it wasn't, "I know you chose not to come here, Emma," She continued, "But, given the circumstances, there isn't really much of a choice. You will begin lessons tomorrow, and, in a week's time, I will decide whether or not to put you through basic training,"

Emma glowered at Meryl. "What about Anna and Arron?" She demanded.

"That is for me to deal with, and nothing to do with you," Meryl replied.

Gabby snorted, "Right." She muttered, "Our _brother_ and _sister_, our _family, _go missing, and it's, like, _nothing to do with us_?"

"I'm tolerating this now because I know you're upset, but in future, I would like to be treated with respect," Meryl growled menacingly at Emma and Gabby, who consequently shared a look that said; _Yeah, like that's ever gonna happen, bitch_. Well maybe not the bitch bit, Dan thought, smiling to himself.

"Oh, and Whitness?" Meryl added as they left the room, "What I said counts for you too! I don't ever expect to be talked to like that again!"

Dan grinned cheekily and they headed out of the building. Emma shook her head. "I get the feeling Meryl dislikes us lot," She muttered.

"Must have been 'cos you hacked her account," Gabby said knowingly.

Emma stared down at her, "I don't believe I ever really told you about that!" She said suspiciously.

Gabby rolled her eyes, "You did say it to Meryl though, and by the way, there's this thing called History, on the internet. You click on it, and it shows you websites that you've been on recently. It doesn't take much work,"

"That damn History button is gonna be the freaking death of me," Emma muttered.

* * *

Chapter 66~Emma

Gabby, Dan and I sat eating in the lunch hall. Gabby ate with gusto, shovelling in mouthful after mouthful of every food she could get her hands on. I picked at my food, trying to eat something, but I just couldn't. Eventually, I gave up, and Gabby nicked off with my plate. I turned to Dan.

"So..." I began, but couldn't think of anything to say.

Dan smiled absentmindedly, but I was saved from coming up with something as I spotted Elizabeth, Andrew, Liam and another guy walking up. Jeez, I thought as they sat down, grinning, what's with the freaky smiles.

"Heard you guys got Meryl real angry," The boy whose name I didn't know, laughed.

I scowled, "What's it to you if Meryl's a grumpy cow?"

The Guy shrugged and I caught Dan and the other guy grinning to each other. Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Well, I guess it's up to me to say it; welcome to CHERUB, officially, since you'll be staying here a while,"

I glowered at the table, "I'm only staying until Anna and Arron are safe, then I'm getting out of here and trying to resume whatever I have left of a normal life,"

The guy whose name I didn't know nodded respectfully. "Yeah, I heard about your sister and brother. Must be pretty hard... I'm Tom, by the way. Andrew's friend and Elizabeth's boyfriend. In that order, and do not get them mixed up,"

I rolled my eyes, "So this is the infamous Tom, the one I've heard absolutely nothing about,"

Tom chuckled, then grabbed at his chest, "Ouch! That hurt!"

Gabby stopped eating for a nanosecond to stare incredulously at Tom, before going back to her food.

"Well, it's good to see you Dan; I thought you would be away for a decade or so trying to recruit from there!" Liam announced, joining in the conversation and turning to Dan.

Dan rolled his eyes, "Are you kidding me? Do you know why Meryl sent me there in the end?"

Liam shook his head curiously and I groaned.

"If this is about Anna's hacking, then, please, keep it to yourself. I don't want the whole of CHERUB onto me about hacking and all that! Besides, it's only Anna that can _really_ hack," I glared meaningfully at everyone.

"Sure, whatever, just let me tell Liam!" Dan begged, "Anna would let me!"

I rolled my eyes, "Yes, that's because she's Anna, and she wouldn't give a care,"

Dan grinned, "Thanks, Emma!" And then he turned back to Liam, "Anna hacked Meryl's account, using a laptop. And Meryl couldn't hack her stuff. And then Anna found some things about CHERUB,"

Liam grinned, "Dude! Seriously? Wow, wish I could do that!"

"Well, Meryl has made it clear what'll happen if she finds out someone has hacked her account," I pointed out, and Liam's grin faded.

"Darn! That sucks!" Liam groaned, "It would've been so funny!"

I shrugged, "I'm pretty sure that Anna could hack Meryl's account again, without Meryl knowing, but, she might not get the chance to,"

Everyone looked away, awkward. "Yeah, sorry again, for Anna and Arron," Andrew apologised, looking shame-faced, "We should've tried harder,"

I shrugged half-heartedly, having officially trashed all remnants of the joyful atmosphere, "Wasn't your fault, Andrew, it wasn't anybody's," I told him.

Elizabeth studied me carefully and sighed, "We'll get 'em back, Emma, don't you worry," She told me. I tried to smile back. Who knew? Maybe we would get Anna back. At the minute, however, we were about a million miles away from getting her back.


	13. A Spot Of Bother

Soz i havnt posted in a while, i've been spending too much time writing, and not enough posting!

Anyway, enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 66~ Anna

The massive hulk-like figure leaned over the two of us, and grabbed our arms. He yanked us up and pulled us after him.

"Ouch! Dude, calm down! What _is_ your problem?" I demanded, struggling to keep up with him.

Arron rolled his eyes besides me. "And what is it with the whole eye rolling thing?" I scowled mockingly, "Do I no longer have the right to be dramatic?"

Arron smiled grimly, "Oh, you still have the right to be dramatic, you just abuse it,"

"Gee, thanks Arron, I feel loved," I grinned at him.

Arron shook his head, probably in complete and utter disbelief at how I could stay so cheerful all the time. I know, it mystifies even _me_, and that's saying something.

We were dragged through several corridors, each one more dark and grim than the last one.

"You guys seriously need some new decor. This place is _way_ too depressing!" I announced loudly, just to be annoying.

Finally, we arrived in front of a massive double door at the end of the corridor. The doors swung open suddenly, and Arron and I peeked curiously inside.

The walls and ceiling were painted white, and I don't mean the neglected, unclean sort of white that mine and Arron's cellar was, I mean the squeaky clean, newly painted, blindingly light white. The floor was a thick black carpet that seemed so out of balance with the rest of the room. In the very middle of the room, there was a white desk and some black chairs. The guy behind the desk stood up, and his grey suit seemed to stick out in this black and white room. The guy was easily 6ft tall, and, I decided, absolutely terrifying. He gestured to the chairs on the other side of the desk, and the hulk lookalike pushed us into them.

"Wow, great place you have here," I said, trying to retain my former self-confidence and cockiness that seemed to have fled the room. "Especially the cellar. I _loved_ the cellar, just couldn't get enough of that!" The words seemed to come easier when sarcasm was involved; I guess formal and polite just isn't me.

"Hmm, I thought you would," The guy muttered.

"Oh, really, you did? Congratulations, jackass!" I growled back.

He seemed more amused than infuriated by my insults, but Arron was shaking his head at me furiously.

"Yes, I heard you were one for insulting people," He told me.

"Your _face_ is one for insulting people!" I threw back at him, angry now.

"Now, now, Anna, we won't get anywhere by calling each other names," He continued. I glared at him.

"The _hell_ we won't," I snapped.

"Anna! Shut up!" Arron hissed at me.

"Yes, Anna, please do. I do want to get somewhere today," The guy, let's call him Bob, chimed in. I glared at him, then shrugged.

"Okey dokey, whatever you say," I muttered, leaning back on my chair. I swung my legs up so that my feet were on the desk, right in front of Bob's face. Bob ignored them.

"Do you know why you're here?" He asked us.

We both shook our heads. Hey, I thought, who knows, maybe this guy is about to try to recruit us into a secret agency too! *Sarcasm Intended.*

"Well, that's unfortunate, isn't it? Do you know how easy it was for us to find you?" He asked, mildly amused still.

I frowned, "Um, actually, I had no clue you were trying to find us in the first place," I told Bob.

Bob laughed, but not in a sort of ha-ha-that's-very-funny kind of way, more of a ha-ha-I'm-laughing-because-I'm-mentally-unhinged. Well, actually, it was neither, I just reckon he _is _mentally unhinged, so... Well, anyway, Bob laughed.

"I think you're lying, Anna," He told me.

"And I think you're positively crazy! Neither of us have very high opinions of each other..." I countered. Arron stared at me, clearly amazed that I was being so brave, or, as he'd put it, so stupid. I was wondering exactly the same thing. How I was able to be so brave, not how stupid.

"Oh well, I didn't ask you here for questioning, anyway," Bob muttered

I sat up, "Why did you bring us here?" I demanded.

Bob smiled to himself in a spooky, deluded kinda way, "Now we're getting there!" He muttered, before turning to me, "Anna, I've heard you're very good at hacking," He announced.

"Oh, really, that's fascinating then, isn't it?" I rolled my eyes and replied sarcastically. "Is that why you kidnapped me, to tell me that I'm good at hacking?"

Bob frowned at me, "No, that was not the original reason for kidnapping you,"

I raised my eyebrows, "Uh huh, and what was the original reason for kidnapping me?"

Bob stared at me, and then said, "Your father stole some stuff from us. My boss attempted to take revenge on him, but he got away. We decided that, if we couldn't kill him, we could kill you,"

"So... you want to murder us. Great, glad we could sit and talk in such a civilised manner. I'm going now, bye!" I snapped angrily, despite never being more scared in my life. It had just occurred to me how out of our depth Arron and I actually were. It was stupid, since I probably should've figured that out ages ago...

Arron, on the other hand leaned forward, "What do you mean, you couldn't kill him?" He demanded, "Our father is dead!"

Bob stared incredulously at us for a few seconds, then, unbelievably, started to laugh. "No one's told you, have they? That is actually really funny!"

"Told us what?" Arron and I shouted in unison.

"I think that's just gonna have to wait for another day..." Bob sighed, his laughing dying, "Oh, wait, you don't have another day, do you?"

See what I mean about him being mentally unhinged?

* * *

Chapter 68~Emma

I sat at the back of the classroom, leaning over my desk, taking notes. The teacher, whose name I have already forgotten, so don't ask me, was yapping on about WW2, or something. I looked around at everyone next to me. They were all still taking notes and listening intently to the teachers. It was like a massive geek fest. I could imagine Anna sitting next to me, grinning, and saying, "It's your dream come true, Emma, a classroom full of geeks!"

I stared out of the window. The room we were in was opposite the junior block, where Gabby was staying. So far, Gabby had loved CHERUB, the food was a definite plus, admittedly, and Gabby had made several friends almost immediately. I, on the other hand, still only ventured out to meet Dan, Elizabeth and Andrew's friends, who were, even they had to admit, few and far.

The bell rang suddenly, jolting me out of my train of thought. I swiped my stuff off the table and into my bag and stood up. I slung my backpack over my shoulder and headed for the door. I fished out my timetable and checked it. For the first time all day I cracked a smile. There was only one thing so far that really helped me to forget our situation; learning karate.

I walked quickly down the stairs, spotting Andrew at the bottom.

"Heya," I call down at him, getting his attention.

"Oh, hi Emma! What've you got next?" Andrew asked as I reached him.

"Karate," I told him.

Andrew grinned, "Same here,"

I glanced at him suspiciously, "You know, that's the third time in the past four days that you've had exactly the same lesson as I have,"

Andrew shrugged, "Coincidence?"

"Fate?" Dan asked dramatically, making the two of us jump. He appeared behind us.

"No, not fate, don't believe in stuff like that," I told him.

"Destiny?" Dan cried.

"Dan! Shut. Up. Everyone in the whole entire corridor is staring at us!" I hissed at him, marching towards the door at the end of the hallway.

"Uh huh, whatever," Dan grinned, "What you got next?"

"Karate," I sighed.

"Awesome, I've got-"

"Hey! Whitness! Meryl wants you in her office now!" A voice yelled down the corridor.

We all turned to see a vaguely familiar sprinting towards us.

"Ah, Tom, I wondered where you'd got to. Where'd you disappear to?" Dan grinned teasingly.

Tom ducked his head, embarrassed, "Nowhere..." He blushed, "I gotta go anyway... um... Elizabeth wanted to see me about something,"

Dan sighed melodramatically, "I am surrounded by love birds! It's depressing!" He growled.

It took me a second to figure out who he was referring to. "Hey! I do not-" I started defensively, but Andrew interrupted me, "Uh huh, says he who fancies –"

"Ah, gotta run!" Dan grinned cheekily, "I'm wanted in Meryl's office, you know!"

He dashed off in the other direction.

"Wait!" I yelled after him, "Why does Meryl want you?"

"Who knows!" Dan's voice echoed down the corridor.

I set off after him. Andrew grabbed onto my arm.

"Where are you going? We're already late for Karate!" He hissed.

"What do you think Meryl wants to talk to Dan about?" I demanded.

Andrew shrugged uncomfortably, "I dunno, what's so important about it?"

"Considering it's been less than a week since we arrived here and Meryl still hasn't told us anything about Anna and Arron? It's very important!" I snapped back.

Andrew frowned, "It could just be a coincidence,"

"And if it isn't?" I demanded, "If Meryl's gonna talk to Dan about Anna and Arron? What then?"

Andrew sighed and looked at me disapprovingly, "We are gonna be in so much trouble after this,"

"Quite frankly, I couldn't care less right now. Maybe sometime in the future when I know my family- or what's left of it- is safe, I'll care about it," I told him.

"Well, come on then, are we going or not?" Andrew demanded.

I sighed, "Thanks," I told him, and we set off at a run.

"Have you got any clue how we're actually going to listen in on Meryl's conversation?" Andrew demanded in a hushed whisper, as we entered the corridor that Meryl's office was on.

"Nope! You?" I whispered back.

"Zip, zilt, nada, we're just gonna have to make it up as we go along," Andrew replied.

I sighed and thought of a very familiar conversation I'd had with Anna less than a week ago. We were, what she'd called, 'winging it'.

We arrived outside Meryl's office door finally, and I stared at it for a few seconds, searching my brain for any inspiration. I spotted the key hole and sighed. The good old fashioned eavesdropping method which is famous for going wrong in so many ways. Oh well, I thought to myself, at least we haven't had to resort to climbing through ventilation shafts... yet.

I pressed my ear against the key hole and strained to hear anything. After a few seconds, I pulled my head away and scowled.

Andrew lifted his eyebrows in question. I shook my head; I couldn't hear anything.

Andrew pressed his ear against the key hole and frowned in concentration. He looked up at me, and said, "There's no one in there,"

My scowl of frustration turned into a frown of confusion, "But Tom told Dan that Meryl wanted him in her office now."

Andrew shrugged, "I guess we'll find out," He murmured, and threw the door open before I could protest.

I winced as the door clanged against the wall loudly, and peered into the room. There wasn't anyone there. Andrew and I hurried into the room and shut the door quietly behind us.

"Where are Dan and Meryl then," Murmured Andrew, almost to himself, "If they're not here?"

I walked over to Meryl's desk and glanced at the papers on it before looking back up at Andrew.

"Do you like reading?" I asked as I sat myself in Meryl's chair.

Andrew looked at me in disbelief, "You can't be serious!" He exclaimed.

I looked back up at him, "If it's about my sister, I am,"

Andrew shook his head in amazement and muttered, almost to himself, as he flicked through the papers in front of us, "If Meryl finds us here, we are beyond dead,"

I grinned back up at him, glad he was helping me out, "I'll see you at our funeral then!"

* * *

Chapter 69~Emma

"This is useless!" Andrew groaned for the 50th time.

"Some of it might not be!" I snapped back at him for the 50th time.

"We're gonna get in so much trouble!" Andrew moaned for the 50th time.

"That's it, dammit! I am not saying shut up one more time, Andrew! Stop being so damned pessimistic!"

Andrew looked up at me in exasperation, "You're one to talk!"

"Yeah, well, my brother and sister are missing, my dad's dead, and I'm being held in a place that doesn't exist against my will! I have the right to be pessimistic!" I protested.

"That's not the point!" Andrew grinned.

"Shut up!"

"Awww, Emma's jealous because I out-reasoned her!" Andrew teased.

"Andrew, two points, 1, I said shut up because I found something important, 2, you are sounding more and more like Dan by the minute, and Dan, as funny as he is, is very annoying sometimes!"

Andrew frowned, uncertain on which point to pick up on. I rolled my eyes and flashed a document under his nose. Andrew grabbed it.

"What is it? What does it say?"

"It's a letter from MI6," I muttered, turning over the cream, slightly worn and crumpled envelope.

"Yeah, so? CHERUB is a secret kinda service too, what does it matter if two secret kinda services mail each other from time to time?"

I ripped open the envelope and spread the letter out on the desk. "Yeah, but look at the return address!" I snapped, stabbing a finger at the little box in on corner of the paper.

Andrew leaned over the desk to get a better look.

"From Mr P. Kenedy', huh, why is the rest of it blank?" Andrew asked.

I stared at him, "I thought you were supposed to be clever!" I said, exasperatedly, "These guys are MI6! They're not exactly gonna give out their address. Anyone receiving a letter from them probably already knows it, and it prevents anyone stealing it from getting their address! Anyway, that's not my point, the name! That's my dad's colleague! Peter Kenedy, he and my dad worked together!" I exclaimed.

Andrew looked up at me sceptically, "And your dad works for the BBC, right?"

I glared at him, "Andrew, I _know_ this guy worked with my dad!" I glanced further down the page and cried out in triumph. "There you go! That's his signature! I've seen it a million times! It's the same guy!"

Andrew gave a long sigh, "If you say so,"

I glanced around the room, suddenly aware of how long we must have been here. At least half an hour.

"You know what I say? I say we get out of here and come back to investigate later!"

Andrew stared at me like I'd gone mad, "You wanna risk your neck some more?"

I shook my head at him disapprovingly, "A pessimist, no apparent brain cells, no sense of adventure... remind me again why they recruited you?"

Andrew rolled his eyes, "Ouch, you know, Emma, you're starting to sound more and more like Anna, what with all the sarcasm, and the really bad jokes..."

I shuddered, "I'm not entirely sure that's a good thing,"

Andrew straightened up and pushed me towards the door, "Me neither, now let's go before someone spots us and kills us,"

* * *

Chapter 70~Emma

My alarm went off at 3 o'clock in the morning. I groaned and switched it off, climbing quickly out of bed. I pulled on some clothes and grabbed a torch I'd found earlier. I opened my door and crept downstairs. A distinct figure was waiting at the bottom of the stairs for me. I smiled in relief.

"Andrew!" I whispered a greeting.

"Heya, Emma," I could see Andrew's grin, even in the darkness around us.

"Thanks, Andrew, I know you didn't want to do this," I told him.

"Well, you're gonna need someone to help you break into Meryl's office," Andrew replied.

"Let's get going then," I muttered.

We arrived outside Meryl's office without hassle, but getting inside was another matter. I heaved at the door again, but it wouldn't budge.

"It's locked," I sighed dejectedly.

Andrew sighed and examined the key hole, "You know how to pick locks?" He asked.

"Nope, but I can try," I sighed and looked around me to try to find something that I could use.

"You got any hair slides?" I asked Andrew, "No, never mind, you won't... Got any paper clips?"

"Uh... no to the second, no way, to the first," Andrew muttered back.

"I've got a paper clip, what do you need it for?" A voice came from behind us. Andrew and I leapt up in surprise.

"Jeez! You gave us a heart attack!" I hissed, recognising Dan in seconds, "What are you doing here!"

Dan grinned at me, "What are you two doing here? Alone?"

"Dan! Shut. Up." I growled at him, "Andrew and I are breaking into Meryl's office! So give me the damned paper clip and shove off!"

Dan's grin widened and he handed over a small metal paper clip, "Touchy touchy, Emma!" He teased.

"Someone punch him," I muttered to myself as I leant over the door. "Oh, wait, before you _disappear_, Dan, can you pick locks?"

"Huh, sure, I knew you would need an expert like me to come along on your... mysterious adventures." Dan replied, walking over to the door. I punched him.

"Ow, jeez! Alright, alright, I'll quit the-"

"Just get on with it!" I interrupted him menacingly, "Sheesh, you're almost as bad as Anna!"

"Wow, really?" Dan asked exuberantly as I heard a click from the door, "That's great! Oh, by the way, the doors unlocked now! No need to thank me, I know, I'm awesome!"

"Shut up, Dan," Andrew grinned, trying not to laugh.

"God!" I groaned, "Why was I stuck with the two most immature guys on the planet? Why?" I sighed exasperatedly as I walked into Meryl's office.

"You do know we're atheists, right?" Dan asked mockingly. Andrew burst into a fit of hysterical laughter.

"No, I didn't, and I don't really care, let's just get on with this," I snapped.

I headed straight to Meryl's desk and searched through the papers spread out across it. "Hey, Dan, how _did_ you know we were here?" I asked in a hushed voice. Unlike out in the corridor, I suddenly felt the need to be quiet.

"Huh? Oh, well, I kinda overheard someone asking why you weren't at karate with the rest of your class, and then... um... well, I kinda, sorta got curious and... spied on you!" Dan burst out.

I glanced up, "We didn't really discuss much on the subject of breaking in here. You can't have heard nearly enough to know exactly when and where we were going."

"No, but I could guess..." Dan mumbled, "I knew you had to have serious motivation for breaking in somewhere, because you would know the consequences if you were caught. And then I remembered how you and Andrew hadn't gone to karate, which, if I am correct, was where you were heading before Meryl called me here about..." Dan hesitated and Andrew and I stared piercingly at him, trying to catch him out, since he had given no indication of what had happened with Meryl, "About something," Dan continued, clearing his throat, "The clues sorta added themselves up. I went to a meeting with Meryl, who still hasn't breathed a word to you about Anna and Arron. At the same time as I was with Meryl, you guys have gone missing. Then, I hear you planning to break into somewhere on campus tonight. And, let's face it, that left little doubt at all. I sneaked in here as most of the staff were leaving, and hid out in a well concealed place until I heard you two nattering on to each other like two deaf old women!"

I looked at him objectively, "You know Andrew's a guy, right, and we're both 14, we aren't deaf, old, or, in Andrew's case, women!"

Dan snickered, "How would you know?"

Andrew kicked him, "How would _you_ know I wasn't a girl, Dan. Before the mission, we barely knew each other,"

Dan coughed and spluttered for several seconds whilst Andrew and I laughed silently.

"Don't worry too much, Dan," Andrew said finally, whacking Dan hard in the back, "I was a guy last time I checked,"

"Ok, TMI, Andrew," I muttered.

We calmed down for a few minutes and continued to search for the letter from MI6. "You know," I said conversationally, "The thing that worries me, well, apart from having creepy eavesdropping friends who spy on us, is that, if _you_ could find us, Dan, a whole lot of people could figure out we were here and not in bed,"

Andrew and Dan looked at me, "You know what?" Dan asked, pale, "I hadn't thought of that,"

Andrew cussed and searched at a slightly more frantic pace. There was silence for a few minutes, apart from the rustling of papers.

"I'm gonna stand by the door and make sure no one comes. You've got me all paranoid now, Emma," Dan complained, crossing the room to peek out at the corridor.

Suddenly, I spotted a slim, cream envelope; I yanked it out from under the massive pile of, paperwork and scanned it quickly. It was the letter. Wasting no time; I jammed it in my jumper pocket and turned to face the others.

"I've found it!" I hissed triumphantly.

Andrew shot up from behind a stack of paper work, and Dan, looking slightly pale, turned to face us, "Good," He murmured, "cos they've found us,"

Andrew and I ran to the door, and Dan pointed to the torch beams that were shining at the wall, 10 metres down the corridor. I looked about for a place to escape. None, the other corridor lead to a dead end.

"Should we surrender?" Dan asked in a joking whisper.

"Nope, I dunno about you, but I'd rather _try_ to escape first," I muttered, and turned back into Meryl's office.

"Hide, perhaps?" Andrew suggested.

"They'll find us in a second," I replied, looking around the heaps of paperwork, and no other furniture.

"Come on," I muttered to myself, "There's gotta be a way out of here! You just gotta find it!"

And I did. My eyes lit upon the one escape route out of this room. The one that was so cliché it made me cringe just thinking about it.

"Oh for crying out loud!" I muttered to myself, "Do we have to do _everything_ the traditional way?"


	14. The Dreaded Ventilation Shafts

Chapter 71~Emma

You know how, in movies, ventilation shafts are always roomy and spacious enough for 6 people? Well, as you could very well guess, in real life, they're not.

"This is beyond the worst situation I've ever been in," Dan grumbled, "Where's the dignity in ventilation shafts, for crying out loud?"

"There is none, just hurry up and let's get outta here!" I hissed at Dan, "Jeez, I'm starting to wonder whether it's not too late to go back and turn ourselves in!"

I winced as, once again, my knees whacked off the ventilation shaft a little too loud for comfort. Shuffling forward quickly in a ventilation shaft fails, so _don't _try it, seriously.

"If we get caught after all of this, I'm gonna kill you, Emma," Dan muttered.

"Dan, shut up and _move_ then perhaps we won't get caught!" I hissed back at him, "Why don't you try Andrew's way, eg. Shut up and shuffle!"

Andrew grunted from ahead of us, to make sure we knew he'd heard.

"I think I see something ahead!" He called back quietly.

"Good, I can't wait to get out of this hell-hole of a place!" Dan grumbled from behind me.

Andrew stopped up ahead, and attempted to prise a gird thingie from the wall. Dan and I crawled up behind him and peered curiously over his shoulders.

"Can you guys move back a bit?" He asked, "I can't get it off without hitting one of you!"

I sighed, "Dan, _move!_"

"I'm trying to, there isn't enough space!" Dan complained.

I pushed myself backwards through the shaft and whacked my head off the roof.

"Ouch! Jesus!" I growled, thoroughly put out.

"Ha ha, Emma just hit herse- Ow!" Dan yelped.

Andrew laughed at us both.

"Shut up," Dan and I snarled.

"Ok," Andrew announced a few minutes later, after his laughing fits had subsided, I've got the grid off,"

"Great, let's go," I sighed, rejoicing at the thought of fresh air and less cramped spaces.

We slipped out if the ventilation shaft and found ourselves in the flowerbed, outside.

I shivered as a cold breeze swept around us.

"It's freezing out here!" I moaned, rubbing my arms to keep warm.

"Never mind that," Andrew sighed, "What time is it?"

"I didn't bring a watch," I mumbled grumpily.

"5 in the morning. We've been in there for pretty much 2 hours," Dan groaned as he heaved himself up off the muddy ground.

"Well, I dunno about you guys, but I'm gonna head back in and get some sleep while I still can," Andrew yawned, as we started walking back to the main building.

"Nah, I'm gonna check out this letter," I told them quietly.

"I'm with Andrew, I'm getting some sleep, but tell us about it in the morning will you?" Dan asked as we reached the main building.

"Wait!" Andrew snapped suddenly, "Emma, Dan, turn your torches off now!"

We stopped abruptly, switched off our torches and turned to stare at him. Andrew was looking behind us.

"I think someone's following us," He murmured, almost inaudibly.

Dan and I turned cautiously, "Where?" I asked out of the corner of my mouth.

"Yeah, where? And didn't we out run these people in the ventilation shafts! Jeez, couldn't they give us a break!" Dan moaned quietly.

Andrew stared out at the pitch black. "I can't see them, so, when I say go, try to run like hell up to your rooms, maybe they won't know who we are,"

"Oh, this just gets better and better, doesn't it," Dan whined.

"Go!" Andrew hissed, and he turned around, flung open the door and sprinted for the stairs, Dan and I right behind him.

I heard someone cussing faintly behind us, and the sound of footsteps in hot pursuit of us.

"Run! Run! Run like you've never ran before! Run like hell!" Dan was shouting encouragement at us from ahead, as he turned the next bend in the stairs. Andrew and I were seconds behind him, skidding wildly as we spun round the corner.

"2nd floor coming up," Dan yelled at us, "Come on people!"

"Yeah, try not to wake up the whole building!" I panted back at him, gasping for breath.

Andrew grabbed my arm and yanked me up the next flight of stairs.

"Come on!" He hissed, echoing Dan's words, "Just a few more steps!"

I hauled myself up the stairs, all intention of running gone. "Dude, we shoulda taken the lift," I moaned.

"It woulda taken to long!" Dan bellowed back.

We arrived on the seventh floor and Andrew shoved me onto the landing, "Go! Go! Go!" He told me, still running up the next flight of stairs.

I dashed down the corridor and threw myself into my room, shoving the door shut as I heard footsteps behind me.

I held my breath as the sound of heavy footfalls bounded nearer. It seemed to take forever, but, finally, they passed me and headed further down the corridor.

I let out a sigh of relief, and clambered into bed, fully clothed. Stuff being dirty, I thought, exhausted, I'll take a shower in the morning.

Chapter 72

Dan woke up to someone hammering on his door. "Who is it?" He moaned, shoving the covers off his bed. He climbed up and checked the clock. 7 o'clock. He wasn't late for lessons _yet_ so why was someone knocking?

He pulled on a fresh pair of trousers and opened the door. A very annoyed, sleep deprived Emma was standing in front of him. She looked so much like Anna that he nearly did a double take. He forced himself to take a deep breath, chill, he thought to himself.

"What?" He demanded, trying to act annoyed.

"Don't 'What?' me Dan, I didn't want to wake you up anyway, but Andrew chickened out, so I had to!" Emma snapped.

"And _why_ did you wake me up?" Dan groaned.

"Because Meryl wants us in her office!" Emma barked at him.

Dan paused, "Give us a second,"

He shut the door, grabbed a t-shirt off the floor, ran his hands through his hair and attempted to look casual and presentable. He opened the door again and walked out.

"Where's Andrew?" He asked as they headed downstairs.

"Waiting for us outside," Emma answered shortly.

Dan sighed, yet another difference between Emma and Anna, he thought to himself; one would laugh about this, the other is transformed into a grumpy, almost monosyllabic spoil sport.

They pulled the doors open and spotted Andrew standing outside. Emma smiled at him, and increased her pace. Dan rolled his eyes. Right, nothing going on there at all, he thought as Andrew and Emma shared a knowing smile and walked back over to him, holding hands.

Dan stared pointedly at their hands, until they realised. They broke apart immediately, blushing.

"Oh, um... hi Dan, um.. let's go," Andrew mumbled, looking awkward.

"Yeah... uh..." Emma mumbled.

Great, now Emma really has turned monosyllabic, Dan groaned to himself.

They arrived outside Meryl's office a few minutes later, still feeling uncomfortable.

The door opened and Meryl came out, scowling.

"Come in," She sniffed, glowering at them.

Well, that's it, Dan thought, if there was any doubt about her not knowing about our little adventure last night, it has been well and truly squished.

They filed into her office and sat down on the chairs in front of her desk.

"I understand that you were in my office last night," Meryl began, "Or, should I say, earlier this morning,"

Dan noticed Emma roll her eyes and Andrew look down guiltily. Yup, leave, me to act the innocent, he thought to himself.

"But, Meryl, I was in bed until Emma woke me up a few minutes ago! I was shattered last night and went to bed at 10! How could I possibly have been in your office? Why would I want to be in your office without permission?" Dan protested.

"Yeah, I have no clue what's going on! I just got here, why should I want to go round breaking rules?" Emma joined in.

Andrew looked around the room guiltily. Dan and Emma glared at him.

"Were you here last night, Andrew?" Meryl asked, sensing Andrew's guilt.

"Um... no Meryl..." Andrew mumbled quietly.

Meryl sighed, "Andrew, if this had been a mission, you would've just blown it!" She snapped.

Dan, Emma and Andrew looked up at her in surprise.

"I knew that you were here last night," Meryl told us, "I do have a few brain cells! And, Emma, I'd like that letter back please! Now!" She announced sternly.

"Uh... I don't um... have it," Emma mumbled.

"I can see it pocking out of your pocket. Hand it over," Meryl sighed.

Emma looked down at her jumper pocket and scowled as she saw the rectangular shape poking out. She fished it out and gave it to Meryl.

"Thank you," Meryl said quietly, "Dan, Andrew, I will talk to you about your punishment in a moment, but first, I'd like to speak with Emma alone,"

Dan looked at Andrew nervously, and shrugged; they were going to get into trouble anyway, so they could deal with waiting a few more minutes. The two boys climbed to their feet and headed towards the door. I used to be the moral one here, Dan thought, and now, I'm just getting into trouble on a daily basis...

Chapter 73~Emma

Meryl waited until the boys had left the room before turning to face me.

"So, how did you find out about the letter?" Meryl asked curiously.

"I spotted it on your desk," I shrugged.

"And I take it you recognised the signature,"

I looked up sharply, "Yes," I glared suspiciously, "That's the signature of my Dads friend from work. He also looks chummy with MI6, and you seem to be familiar with him. Just who is he?"

Meryl sighed, "I'm not authorised to tell you," She said tightly, "However, I am authorised to punish you for breaking and entering, and stealing,"

I rolled my eyes, "What are you gonna do, take me down to the local authorities and explain in detail how I broke into a building that doesn't technically exist and stole some unreal letter from an organisation that no one knows about?"

Meryl frowned, "No, I can't."

I nodded with satisfaction and waited for Meryl to continue.

"Emma, I told you that, in order to be a CHERUB agent, you would have to complete basic training," Meryl began slowly.

Scowling, I slumped back into my chair, realising where this was going.

"I have decided that you should, as you will probably be staying here a while, go ahead with basic training. You don't have to go on any missions if you complete basic training, in fact, I think the situation right now will force you into lying low for several months until this is sorted. The next basic training starts a week from now, on the Thursday, you will get all the other information later, but if you have any questions, ask Dan or Andrew, I'm pretty sure that they can answer your questions,"

My scowl deepened, "Can I refuse to do basic training?" I demanded.

Meryl shook her head, "No, you can't. The only way you can get out of it is if you are seriously injured, or if you quit, in which case, you would have to start over again in three months time,"

"You know," I growled, glowering at the floor, "There are several benefits to kicking me off on a 100 day course which involves total seclusion from the outside world,"

Meryl raised her eyebrow, and suppressed a smile, "Oh? Really?"

I glared up at her, "Yeah, you would have me out of you way. You wouldn't have me demanding updates on my family every day. I won't be attempting to steal letters from you, and I'll have no opportunities to ask you about mysterious signatures on those letters."

"Well then, I'll consider them added bonuses," Meryl replied coolly, "You can go get ready for lessons now; there should be a new timetable under your door. You may be good at breaking into stuff, but you can never get enough of those swimming lessons,"

I grimaced and stood up.

"I'd say thank you, but I wouldn't mean it, so... sorry for 'breaking into' your office last night," I added as I left.

Dan and Andrew were waiting anxiously outside. I smiled grimly at them as I walked past.

"Hey," I greeted them.

"Hiya!" Andrew smiled back at me.

Dan rolled his eyes, "Hi," He said nonchalantly.

"I gotta go, new timetable," I scowled, "I'll see you guys later. Oh, and, good luck with your punishments," I told them as they headed into Meryl's office.

I arrived outside my room ten minutes later, in a thoroughly sour mood. I walked in and, ignoring the timetable lying on the floor, I headed straight for the shower. I felt dirty, sweaty and just generally annoyed. The hot shower was relaxing and by the time I was out and dressed again, my mood had improved, albeit marginally.

I grabbed my timetable and read through it as I walked briskly down to breakfast.

Swimming lesson for half an hour, Karate, Laps...? Since when was laps a lesson? And no, do not answer, 'since you are really unhealthy and can't jog 100 metres without collapsing and dying'.

Down at breakfast, I grabbed some toast and Jam and headed over to an empty table. Liam and Tom converged on me seconds after I'd sat down.

"Is it true?" Liam asked immediately.

"Is what true?" I replied, shovelling toast into my mouth.

"Did you really break into Meryl's office?" Tom begged, as Elizabeth joined us. I glanced at her, "Does _everyone_ know what I did last night?"

Elizabeth grinned, "Meryl personally escorted Dana and Andrew down to the running track. 40 laps before breakfast, and another 20 before they go to bed. Every day, for the next three weeks. She says that she can't give them mission suspension, or a recruitment mission, so laps is what they get,"

My head snapped up, "What do you mean; she says she can't give them recruitment missions or mission suspensions?" I demanded.

Elizabeth started guiltily, "Oh, erm... nothing... it's just that... you can't go on another mission until you've had 3 months back on campus, so there would be no point to a recruitment mission,"

I stared at her, "Riiiigghhtt. I'm gonna go see Dan and Andrew down on the track,"

I got up, "See you guys later," I mumbled and jogged out of the room.

Elizabeth was right, I thought, as I spotted 2 figures running on the track, several hundred metres away, the poor saps are running laps.

I walked casually down to the side of the track and yelled as they approached, "Hey! How many laps so far?"

Dan and Andrew slowed down considerably and skidded to a stop next to me.

"Oh, hi Emma," Dan smiled, slightly out of breath, but still looking ok. I guessed they must've only done a few.

Andrew grinned down at me, "Number 19, still got a long way to go."

I hid my stunned look and grinned back at him, "Not bad,"

Dan gagged in the background.

"Shove off, Dan," I scowled at him.

Dan rolled his eyes, "So anyway, what's your punishment?" He asked.

I scowl and kicked at the ground, "Stupid basic training," I grumbled.

"Hey, that's not so bad!" Dan teased, "You get to learn a new language, figure out how to use guns, run an assault course every day, eat next to nothing, have freezing cold showers, and, you'll love this, get to do lots of Karate! Oh, wait, the best bit is, after all of that, you'll become the world's first reluctant spy! Apart from Alex Rider... but that doesn't count 'cos he's fictional!"

I glared at him, "You know the first thing I'm gonna do when I've finished basic training? I'm gonna beat you to death then figure out a way to escape this place, and, finally-"

"We know, we know, resume life at an orphanage, with whatever normalness you can." Dan interrupted, "The question is, will Gabby decide to come with you?"

Well, I wasn't expecting _that_ from Dan.


	15. The Destroying Of The Laptop

Chapter 74~Anna

So, where were we? Ah, yes the post-meeting-the-delusional-weirdo. Well, things sure got boring after that! Arron and I were escorted back to our homey little basement to sit and think about our lives in general. Oh, and our deaths...

"So... what do you reckon they'll do with our bodies once they've killed us?" I asked Arron conversationally, after several hours of doing nothing, "Do you think they'll actually bury them? Or maybe they'll chuck them in a river... They could, of course, just leave us her-"

"Anna, please!" Arron snapped.

"Sheesh, _sorry_! I'm just trying to make conversation here!" I rolled my eyes.

Arron groaned, "You make bad conversation!"

I looked around the plain, dull room, "I wish I had a pen, or pencil. Heck, even crayons would do! I wish I could just doodle on the walls, or... or do something!"

Arron grunted an incoherent reply. Well then, you're just gonna have to start talking to yourself then, aren't ya? I told myself. I sighed and thought about home. I guess it probably should depress me that, right now, I couldn't think of any place that even _slightly_ resembled home.

Oooh! Oooh! Epiphany! My brain shouted. Maybe that's because home isn't a place, it's the people you're with!

No, brain, you idiot! That was off some cheesy film that you burnt afterwards! I told my brain.

Still, my brain reasoned, if home really is who you're with, then who _would _you be with?

Well, that's easy! I replied (and, yes, I have, quite literally lost it, because, yes, I am in fact having a made up conversation _with my own freaking brain! _And this is why I hate mad/delusional people who attempt to kidnap me!) Emma, Gabby, Arron, Dad, Dan...

You know who it would be really nice to have been kidnapped with? I asked myself. Dan, I answered, at least he has a sense of humour!

Or, maybe, it's something el-

Shut up brain!

My train of thought was interrupted by Arron, "Anna, please stop talking to yourself, it's freaking me out,"

Crap, I thought, I just said all of that out loud... well... shit. I sat around for a few minutes, trying not to start talking to my brain again- 'cos, and I'm sorry to all those people who do it all the time, now that I thought about it, talking to my brain was probably the weirdest thing I've ever done...

"That's it! I'm gonna complain!" I snapped after seemingly endless minutes of silence.

I got to my feet and banged loudly against the door, "Hey! Hellllooooo! Anybody out there! Don't bother arranging our deaths, you bastards, we're gonna die of boredom in here pretty quickly!"

There was silence on the other side of the door, but I caught Arron shaking his head and hiding a grin. After a moment's pause, I started hitting the door again, "You got any crayons? Pens? Pencils? Hey, how about some paint?"

No reply, "Suit yourselves, spoil sports," I went and sat back down.

A few seconds later, the door cracked open, and a titchy little guy came in.

"He says that you are to have this," The guy mumbled, placing something rectangular on the floor, "He says that you shouldn't try anything stupid with it, though," And with that, the dwarf dude left.

"Well, that was unexpected," I said out loud, walking over to the rectangular shape Dwarf Dude (as he is now officially named) had left. It was a laptop.

"For us?" I asked out loud, scooping it up, "Awww, you shouldn't have. Hey, Arron, the entertainment has arrived!"

Arron and I sat in the corner of our lovely little prison cell- I mean- no, actually, it pretty much is a prison cell...

I flipped open the laptop and powered it up.

"Why do you think they gave it to us?" Arron asked quietly.

"I dunno, they heard our innocent souls crying out for some entertainment?"

Arron snorted, "Innocent, yeah, right. You will, I'm sorry to say, never be innocent, Anna,"

I sighed dramatically, "Oh well, I guess I'll see you in Hell then,"

The laptop finally finished booting up, and the main screen was showing. I clicked on the internet.

"Well. We may as well put this to our advantage," I murmured, amazed as it came up with Google, "Wow, this trash heap actually has connection!" I exclaimed, and clicked on the Google mail icon, "This is gonna be easy!"

"Or not," Arron sighed as it came up blocked.

"Darn..." I scowled, experimenting with the pop up blocker thingie. No luck; it would take me ages to break this. If it had been Emma and mine's laptop, then a few hours at the least, but this laptop was new, and all of the internet securities had been upgraded. It would take me ages to figure out the boundaries of the internet on this computer, and even longer to figure out which codes to use on it.

"You can't hack it?" Arron asked incredulously.

"Well, I'm not supposed to! That's the point of it!" I growled, "If I had a couple of weeks, then maybe!"

Suddenly, I had an idea. Meryl Spencer, so help me, you better bloody well have that conversation box up and ready to discourage nosy parkers! I clicked on the Google search bar and started typing. If this doesn't work, I'm gonna kill Meryl, I thought, clicking enter.

Chapter 75~Anna

My search came up with next to nothing, just as it had last time. I sighed grimly, and began to trawl through the websites, glancing at the little clock in the corner of the screen. I frowned a second at it, then hovered my mouse over it. The date popped up in a little box.

"Um... Arron, how many days do you think we've been here?" I asked nervously.

Arron shrugged from the corner, "A couple, 1 or 2, anyway,"

I looked back at the little box.

"Um, yeah, we've been here about four days, Arron. Or, at least, we disappeared over four days ago..."

Arron shot up and grabbed the computer off me.

"What?"

It was just at that moment when a little conversation box popped up on screen. I grinned as I read the text;

**What are you doing?**

**Now, that is more than a little cliché, isn't it Meryl, I mean, come on, u told me that last time!** I typed back, as Arron started in surprise.

"Who's that? What're you doing?" He hissed.

"Shhh!" I hissed back as Meryl's reply came up.

**Anna? Where are you?**

I could almost see Meryl sitting at the other end of the computer, glaring at the screen.

**The one and only, but I hav no clue where we r... hang on a second, i'm gonna try sumthing**

I hit the send button, and leaned in on the screen, watching. When Meryl's reply came up again, the box flickered out of existence for a second, then stayed on screen.

"Hmmm... interesting," I muttered out loud.

"What's interesting? Who're you talking to?" Arron demanded.

"Someone's watching our conversation," I told him, "The message is being directed to another computer, before it gets to ours,"

Arron frowned at the screen, "How the fuck can you tell that?" He demanded

I grinned ominously at him, "I have hidden talents so great, that mad delusional idiots kidnap me. As well as for getting revenge on our dad..."

Arron rolled his eyes, muttered something under his breath and turned back to the message.

**Anna, is your brother with you? **

I bit my lip in concentration. How to go about protecting a computer from all others, except Meryl's. I clicked to one side and brought up the start menu. Clicking a few buttons and typing a whole bunch, I worked my through the security programs. I grinned in satisfaction as a flickering message on screen showed that someone else was 'listening in' on our conversation. I clicked on the icon and a whole ton of gibberish coded stuff came up. I turned to Arron.

"I don't suppose that you would call it going too far if I sent a virus to destroy His computer?"

Arron shook his head, "Just make sure he isn't listening, dumbo,"

I sighed and entered a few letters onto the start of the gibberish, then I replied to Meryl.

**Yes, Arron's here, we were bing listend 2, but i cut off their conection, we hav a few mins b4 they realise wats happened...**

Meryl's answer came quickly. **Can you suggest any way to track your computer?**

**Dude, there's such thing as txt language 4 all those in a hurry! I'm tryin out sumthing, b a min.**

I brought up the main menu and clicked on Control Pannel, I searched through the options until I found the right thing. I turned back to Meryl.

**I'm sending u a link 2 the computer's main menu, if ur any gud hacking, u shud b able 2 work out wat 2 do from there**

I clicked on several buttons and typed some more commands into the computer, then hit the send button. Just in time, too, as Arron suddenly snapped his head up.

"I think someone's coming!" He whispered, pale. We sat in silence for several seconds, and I heard faint footsteps, getting nearer and nearer.

"Crap!" I swore.

**G2G, sumones coming, c ya l8r! Gud luk wiv the link! Oh, say hi 2 emma if u c her, and gabby, and dan, and-**

My message got cut off as the door was flung open. I clicked send quickly and jabbed the power button.

"I've got to admit, Anna, I'm impressed," Bob the delusional weirdo told me.

"Well, I try to be modest about it..." I shrugged, "But I fail at being modest. That thing was a piece of cake! Did you seriously think that I wouldn't spot your clumsy attempt to listen in to our conversation!"

Bob smiled, "No, I didn't, but I did expect you to miss the tracing virus I sent through your laptop. Within a few minutes, we'll know exactly where the CHERUB headquarters are, and then, well, then, the real fun will start,"

I'm no expert at crisis's, but I'm pretty sure that these goons getting the location of CHERUB would be bad. I bit my lip. How the hell did this guy even know about CHERUB? How was I supposed to stop him getting the location?

"What's CHERUB! How come everyone seems to know more than me?" Arron demanded groaning.

"That's because we're all cleverer than you, Arron," I quipped, then turned to Bob, "So, I'm guessing this is a standard virus then?" I asked innocently. Arron tensed, hearing the real tone of my voice, "If it was complex, I would've spotted it easy,"

Bob nodded smugly, "A tiny virus. I can't believe you fell for it!"

I rolled my eyes, these bad guys are so stupid, I thought. "But... Don't you need the laptop to access the location of my chum's computer?"

Bob frowned warningly, beginning to see where this was heading, "Hand it over, Anna, and don't do anything stupid," He growled at me, past his stupid little jaunts.

I looked behind him and spotted several goons in the doorway. I gulped.

"You know what, I quite like laptops," I began conversationally, "I'm building my own, you know. It's gonna be the best laptop ever made! Unfortunately, I'm running out of spare parts. I'm in the process of trashing all the laptops I can get my hands on, so that I can collect all the right parts," At this point of course, I'm bluffing the whole thing, but, if Bob gets to be crazy, then should get to act a little wrong in the head too!

I waved my arm in the general direction of the laptop, behind me, "That laptop there, well, it's got the best keyboard I've ever seen, so, I'm sorry, but you can't have it!"

Of course, someone had to go ruin the effect. Arron burst into hysterics, unable to stop himself from laughing. I looked at him in irritation and shook my head. Then I realised that everyone was now concentrating on Arron.

I dived to the floor and scooped up the laptop.

"If I'm correct," I announced, drawing their attention, "If this computer dies, then you can't access the whereabouts of CHERUB! So... All I have to do is... KILL IT!" I screamed, and chucked the laptop across the room. It whacked against the wall and dropped hard onto the floor, but it was still alive. There was a moment of shocked silence, before everyone in the room converged on the laptop, myself and Arron included.

Chapter 76~Emma

I jogged around the track, breathing heavily, next to Andrew.

"Why did I ever agree to do this?" I gasped as we passed the starting line for the 18th time.

"Because, you need to be fit and healthy to get through basic training, and, quite frankly, you're not," Andrew replied, not at all out of breath.

"Hmph! Anna was always a better runner than me, but does _she _need to run? No!" I complained.

"Well," Dan said grimly, overtaking us again, "Anna is currently being held captive by someone unknown, and she probably isn't having the time of her life,"

"Well, neither am I!" I growled back at him, but I felt a twist of guilt inside. Dan was right- Anna had it a whole load harder than I did right now.

It was 6 o'clock, and Andrew and Dan were just finishing off their 20 laps for the evening. Stupidly, I'd let Andrew talk me into going with them. We jogged the remaining 2 laps in relative silence; nothing could be heard but our breathing. When we finally finished all 20 laps, I collapsed on the floor and lay there, taking massive gulps of air. Andrew grinned and sat down beside me. Dan rolled his eyes.

"You got a drink?" I croaked.

Andrew grinned, "Here," He told me, passing me a bottle of water.

I propped myself up and literally inhaled the water, then, I turned back to Andrew, "You think of everything, don't you?"

Andrew's grin widened, "Well, pretty much," He said modestly, "Oh, Meryl says that she wants you wearing the blue trainee shirt, just like everyone else,"

I glared at him, "Oh, wow, you're right, you do remember pretty much everything, just don't forget to tell Meryl that I told her to go to hell,"

"Message delivered, Miss Simons," Meryl appeared from a few metres away. I scowled. "All of the other trainees have to wear the uniform, why should you be any different?" Meryl demanded.

"Because I don't want to be here?" I asked.

Meryl shook her head firmly, "No, you are wearing that blue t-shirt tomorrow, just like everyone else. Basic Training starts in six days time, so you'd better be ready," Meryl warned.

"Empty threats aren't gonna scare me, I've been told the rules; I can drop out whenever I feel like it," I replied.

Meryl smiled venomously, "Considering the circumstances, I might have to re-arrange that rule..." The threat hung unspoken in the air; play the game properly, or we'll make you.

"Sure, whatevs, I'm just here until I'm free to go, so none of this really bothers me," I shrugged, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Yeah, bu-" Dan began, but I cut him off with a glare.

"Well then, Emma, I'll see you after you've completed basic training," Meryl continued, "I don't expect you'll be able to get into much trouble in 6 days,"

Meryl walked away. She was a good 50 metres away before she turned back around, "Oh, and Emma?" She called, "Your sister says hi,"

I shot up, "What do you mean? Have you spoken to her?" I shouted after her, "Where is she?"

But Meryl was already inside, and I knew that if I went after her and demanded her to explain, she would most probably deny it all. God, she was such a bitch.

Chapter 77~Emma

"Hit! Kick! Hit! Kick! Punch! Block!" Andrew shouted out the orders, and I followed through, beating the punch bag as hard as I could. Andrew seemed to think that it was his job to train me as best as he could in the run up before basic training. This was just one of the many free periods of time where I had been forced into running laps, learning karate, or learning the basics of all the simple languages that Andrew knew, which, believe me, was about 20 different languages. In all, I was barely ever caught doing nothing.

"Ok, that's great, you can stop now," Andrew grinned, throwing a water bottle at me as we headed out of the empty dojo.

"Great job," Dan said encouragingly from behind us. I shook my head. Just as much as Andrew seemed determined to train me up properly, Dan seemed determined to cheer me up, and get me into the 'basic training spirit' as he put it.

We made our way over to the main building, so that we could ready for the afternoon lessons. Unfortunately, we had to pass the athletics track. I groaned as Andrew eyed his watch.

"We still have half an hour. That's enough time to run a few laps, eat and clean up," Andrew announced.

"No, please!" I groaned.

"10 laps round the track, and make it quick!" Andrew barked.

Dan grinned at my grimace, and the two of us started jogging.

"I hate you, you know," I scowled at Andrew, as the girl in front of me took the last piece of cake from the dessert counter.

Andrew smiled sheepishly and we headed over to Liam, Tom and Elizabeth, who were waiting for us at an empty table.

"What was the time?" Elizabeth demanded as I sat down.

I looked up, "Are you stalking me or something? How did you know I was down on the running track?"

Elizabeth grinned, "I know only 3 people who would be crazy to waste their lunch break running, so quit avoiding the question,"

"18 minutes, jeez!" I sighed.

Elizabeth nodded approvingly, "Not too bad," She commented.

Liam elbowed me and grinned cockily, "Only 3 days left, Emma! Excited?"

"Are you gonna ask that every time I see you, 'cos you know the answers always gonna be the same," I told him, digging in to my lasagne.

"Well, anyway, I want you to meet our new friend, Raine; she's doing basic training on Thursday too!

A girl several inches shorter than me popped up from around Liam.

"Hi," She smiled shyly.

"Hi, I'm Emma," I smiled, offering her my hand.

Raine shook it and slowly smiled back.

"Do you mind me asking how you got here?" I asked her.

"Oh, well, I got picked up last night, from an orphanage in Carlisle." Raine muttered quietly.

I smiled back, "Yeah, my story is kinda a long one, to put it short, my brother and sister are in a whole ton of trouble, and me and my other sister got taken here. My brother and sister can't really get here right now..."

Raine nodded seriously, "You must miss them," She told me.

I looked up, surprised, "Yeah, I do, but the second I'm out of basic training, I'm heading out to get them,"

Raine smiled, "Well, I hope you make it through basic training first time,"

"Yeah, I hope you do too," I told Raine. She seemed nice enough, I thought, and it looked as if my little circle of friends had widened a bit more. I caught Andrew smiling secretly at me, and I smiled back. Maybe there would be benefits to staying here, I thought, in the back of my mind, but that thought was quickly squashed; I'd made up my mind, and I wasn't gonna change it.

Chapter 78~Anna

I elbowed my way forward, kicking people aside, and chucked myself at the laptop. I scooped it up and cried triumphantly, as I started whacking against the wall. It refused to break. Dwarf Dude, who I hadn't spotted amongst the tall bulky guys, lunged at me, and I swung the portable computer at his head, effectively knocking him out cold.

I looked down at my new weapon, new appraisal in my eyes; this would be a good way to get out of here, I thought, happily hitting anyone within my range. Unfortunately, my train of thought continued, this damned thing has to be destroyed, so you can't use it.

Bob was charging at me, rage in his eyes. Well, this sure isn't a great situation, I thought to myself. I charged straight at him, dropping to the floor and skidding through his legs last minute, like the people in the movies always do. I began throwing the laptop frantically at the wall. Arron ran to me, with what looked like half of a door handle in his hands. He gestured for me to hold the computer whilst he used the door handle to kill it.

Suddenly, Arron yelled out, and was wrenched away from me. I looked down at the laptop, and saw a dint forming on its surface. Let's finish it, I thought grimly, and picked up the laptop, flinging it across the room. It smacked with a somewhat final thunk, against the opposite wall, the whole thing cracked into several pieces.

I whooped with delight turning to high-five Arron, remembering too late what had happened. My grin disappeared, as I saw Bob holding a gun to Arron's head. I gulped.

"Don't shoot," I croaked hoarsely, all bravo gone.

"I was prepared to play nice, Anna, but maybe I won't." Bob growled, pulling his arm even tighter around Arron's neck, ignoring Arron's feeble attempts to claw him off.

"You will do as I say, or your brother get's killed, understood?" Bob demanded.

I nodded, unable to talk.

"Right then," Bob announced, straightening up and pushing Arron away from him, "I want you to go with my guards without making a fuss and I want you to do exactly as they say,"

Arron looked at me desperately, shaking his head. I sighed and walked over to him.

"Keep safe, Arron," I told him, hugging him fiercely.

"You too, don't get too cocky," Arron muttered back, his voice strained.

"Get going!" One of the goons barked, and the sentimental moment was over; I turned and followed them out of the room.

I was once again, pushed down the plain corridor, but, this time, I was directed up a set of stairs. And then another. And then another.

Jeez, these people sure love their stairs! I thought to myself as we climbed yet another flight of stairs. When we got to the top, I saw that the whole of this floor was just one gigantic room, with tons and tons of people hurrying about. There were several groups of computers, all gathered around the middle, and we headed towards them. This is obviously the control room of this building, I thought, spotting someone watching the security cameras.

Bob must have magically teleported himself from downstairs to here, or maybe he took the lift, because he was waiting impatiently for us to arrive. As soon as I was within 2 metres of him, he grabbed me and shoved me into a chair in front of an expensive looking computer.

"Seem as though you've destroyed our chances of retrieving the whereabouts of CHERUB," Bob growled at me, "You can set to work with your extraordinary hacking skills, and if I don't see results soon, your brother dies,"

I gulped, well, Bob certainly wasn't being his friendly ol' self today!

"What do you want me to do?" I asked cautiously.

Bob laughed crazily, "I want you to hack into MI6," He said casually, as my mouth dropped open.

Well, I'm shitted now, I thought.


	16. BT Now What Could That Possibly Mean!

Next couple of chapters coming right up. read, enjoy, review! :P

* * *

Chapter 79~Emma

We had a party of sorts, on Rain and mine's last night before basic training. It wasn't much; we just went and visited Gabby for an hour or so, before heading to my room, and staying up talking 'til 11. After that, I kicked everyone out, claiming that I needed at least some sleep before training tomorrow.

Andrew stayed behind a few minutes, "Good luck, Simons, the next time I see you, you'll be wearing that grey t-shirt like all the rest, and you'll be damned proud of that piece of grey cloth!"

I grinned, "Yeah, whatever, the next time I see you, I'll have made sure that I've had a _long_ bath, eaten way more than I should've done and had a nice long snooze beforehand,"

Andrew grinned, "Goodnight then, and good luck," He told me, hugging me. I hugged him back, and then shoved him towards the door.

"Go on, shoo, I wasn't lying when I said I needed sleep!"

"Good luck, again," Dan said, popping out from behind the door.

I shook my head in disbelief, "Get out, the two of you, or so help me, I'll... I'll sneak out of Basic Training and murder you in your sleep!"

Dan and Andrew grinned before making a quick exit from my room. I changed into my pyjamas and crawled into bed, positive that I wouldn't be able to sleep a wink.

I must've got to sleep at some point, because I woke up to someone shaking me.

"Emma, come on, get up, you lazy lump," Andrew was complaining at me. I groaned and sat up, rubbing my eyes. I looked around the room, and realised my alarm clock was missing.

"Damn!" I muttered, and turned to Andrew, "What time is it?"

"It's half four in the morning, but I figured they might nick your alarm clock, they do it to almost everyone,"

I looked around my room and saw a backpack and some clothes on the floor. I climbed stiffly out of bed.

"Wait outside a minute," I told Andrew, and he nodded, closing the door behind him.

I picked up the t-shirt, which had a big, white number 3 on it. It was ripped slightly along the bottom, and the short sleeves were frayed, but it would do. The trousers were much the same; they had holes the size of a tennis ball in both knees. I didn't even bother inspecting the underwear; I pulled my own on without a second thought. After I had got dressed, I faced a new dilemma; the dreaded boots. They had several holes in the soles of both shoes, and stunk of pond water. I shrugged and picked up my own boots that I'd been given when I'd arrived at CHERUB.

Once I was kitted out, I called Andrew back in and together we went through the contents of the backpack. There was all sorts in there; several books, some pens and pencils, that I guessed were there for the lessons, and lots of important looking equipment that I couldn't name.

At Andrew's suggestion, I grabbed several bars of chocolate from the mini-fridge, in my room (because they were the only things in there that wouldn't go off or bruise itself to death).

When we checked the clock again, it was 4:50am. I turned to Andrew, "What about Raine? Did anybody wake her up?"

Andrew slapped his forehead, "Darn, no. We can go check if she's awake,"

I slung the heavy backpack over my shoulder, and we headed over to Raine's room, which was just a few doors down. I knocked lightly on the door, and heard a muffled, "Come in,"

Andrew and I walked in, to find a fully kitted out Raine, with a t-shirt that had a white number 4 on it. She grabbed her backpack off the floor and smiled at us.

"I figured Andrew would probably end up waking up early for you," She smiled quietly.

"Yeah, well, if he hadn't I would have woken up around 11 o'clock," I smiled back.

We headed downstairs together, and, to our surprise, found the lunch hall open. Several CHERUB agents were sitting eating, and two of them were wearing blues trainee shirts, with the numbers 1 and 8 on them.

We grabbed some toast, which was the only real thing on offer at this time, apart from cereal, and headed over to the other trainees.

On the way Andrew explained to us that the other agents were probably going on missions and had to have an early start.

"Hi," I grinned, almost nervously at the girl and boy wearing the t-shirts, "Can we sit here?"

The guy nodded, "Sure, I'm Zack, and this is my sister, Tess, I take it you're doing basic training too?"

Raine, Andrew and I sat down together, and I nodded, "Raine and I are, but Andrew isn't, he's just... hanging out, I guess,"

Andrew grinned, and slung his arm around my shoulder, "Sure, I'm hanging out. I wasn't gonna let you get killed by Large for being late because your alarm went 'missing'!"

I smiled back at him, "Thanks for that, by the way,"

Zack and Tess were both watching us, almost identical smug smiles on their faces. Jeez, these guys should team up with Dan, for crying out loud.

"So, anyway, who's older?" I asked, trying to subtly change the subject.

Tess scowled, "He is, but only by 11 months!"

Her reaction reminded me of the way Anna reacted, when she had to admit that I was older than her. It made my heart ache, as, yet again I was reminded of how far away my sister was.

I glanced at the clock on the wall, and stood up, "It's almost 5; we should get going,"

The others nodded, and I could see how nervous they all were too. We grabbed our identical backpacks and walked out of the hall.

We spotted further two trainees waiting outside the fence. Another girl and another boy, and both of them were staring at their watches.

"Hi," Zack grinned, back to his seemingly cocky self.

"Hiya, I'm Lilly, and this is Jonah... we're going out," Lilly grinned.

"Yeah, but we're not going in there until we really have to, which isn't for another minute and a half," Jonah grinned too.

I noticed that their t-shirts read 5 and 6. I turned to Andrew.

"Well, thanks for coming down," I told him, hugging him hard.

Andrew smiled down at me, "Hey, no problem, and, good luck in there, too. I'll be waiting for you when you get out,"

"Ok, it's officially 5," Jonah announced dramatically to Zack, who grinned at him, and I could tell that the two of them had become instant best friends.

I turned back to Andrew, "Yeah, see you in 100 days," I told him.

And then he leaned down and kissed me. Several people cheered (I'm pretty sure it was Zack and Jonah, and possibly Tess) but I wasn't embarrassed. I wrapped my arms around Andrew's neck and kissed him right back. We broke apart breathless.

"Good luck," Andrew repeated, hugging me again, and then he was off, jogging back towards the main building. I stared after him, grinning like an idiot, until Raine pulled me inside the basic training compound and reality set back in. 100 days of hell stood before me, and the happy glow that I'd had 30 seconds ago was getting dimmer by the minute.

Chapter 80~Anna

I stared blankly at the computer screen for several minutes, unsure of how to start off, before a jab in the back from something metal and gun-shaped told me to get a move on.

I brought up the internet and tried to act the idiot, by typing in MI6 to Google. No luck, all I got was crap about Alex Rider, and even a simpleton couldn't get that freak mixed up with MI6, the real version. An exasperated sigh came from behind me.

I tried a few other searches on stupid stuff; MI5, Secret Services, 999, but all I got was a whole ton of junk, and a big gun-shaped bruise on my back.

"Quit stalling, girlie," One of the guards growled.

Girlie? Girlie? Who the fuck calls someone girlie? I nearly burst out laughing, but something about the seriousness of the situation stopped me. I sighed and started the proper attempts. Within minutes, I had found a sort of backdoor to the MI6 main login screen up. It would be impossible to find again, but I was doubting I'd get another chance at this anyway. A grunt of surprise came from the guard, and I guessed the playing dumb had almost worked. I tried half-heartedly to login, but I wasn't, unfortunately, (or perhaps fortunately) granted access.

Bob came up behind me and looked over my shoulder, "I know what you're capable of, Simons, and this isn't it, this isn't half of what you can usually do,"

"Yeah, well, I don't usually hack into the British Intelligence, do I? The most I've ever done is the fucking police, and their system security has gone to hell!" I snapped at him, officially stressed out.

I leaned in and typed a string of what would look like gibberish to everyone else into the computer. In actual fact, it was a string of pass codes that enabled me to hack into almost anything. In actual fact, the whole of that last sentence was a lie, the gibberish was gibberish, and I wasn't trying at all to hack in.

Bob seemed to realise this, and I got a whack round the head for it.

"Hey," I snapped, "I have delicate brain cells! I don't want my hacking skills to die because my brain cells died because some idiot with no brain cells hit me on the head!"

I'm not even sure that made sense, I thought to myself, but it sure as heck sounded good!

Bob glared menacingly at me, and I remembered Arron in the basement. I quit trying to be smug and got back to trying to pretend to hack.

By the 5th attempt, I was running out of imaginative ideas. I was sure that, at any moment, Bob would catch me out. I gulped, and hesitated as my gibberish denied me access once again.

I'm gonna have to start hacking, I thought to myself. I typed in a set of numbers, and then the words *TOP SECRET FILES* and the computer seemed to pause a few seconds longer, before I was denied access for what seemed like the 50th time.

I started to wonder what Bob would do if he got access to the files in MI6, and I froze, turning to face him.

"Why do you need to get into MI6?" I asked nervously.

Bob looked at me grimly, but in a kinda way that suggested to me that I should just shut up and go back to my hacking. I pushed the nervous feeling in my stomach to one side and ignored it.

"Well, I want information, why else?" Bob asked a threatening tone in his voice.

"What information? What would you use it for?" I demanded, stupidly pressing for more information.

"Now, _why_ should I tell _you_, Anna?" Bob smirked.

"Now, _why_ should I hack into MI6 for _you_?" I asked sarkily, fed up with Bob being a jerk. I realised that my sarcasm failed, since we all knew why I was hacking/pretending to hack into MI6.

I turned back to my computer, disgusted at myself for not coming up with a decent comeback. Back to thinking up stupid ways to hack, I thought, racking my brains for inspiration.

Chapter 81~Emma

Large stood in front of the six of us, scowling. He was absolutely massive, and intimidating was the only real way I could describe him. Either side of him were two assistants, who Mr Large introduced to us as Mr Speaks and Miss Smokes. He then explained to us that we would be put in pairs, 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 5 and 6, 7 and 8.

I looked around at everyone in the room, mentally sorting them out into pairs. Zack was number 1, but his partner wasn't here yet. I was partners with Raine, and we both shared a small smile of relief. Lilly and Jonah were together, which was either a massive coincidence, or they had been planning this all along. Tess was number 8, but, like her brother, her partner was running late.

After Mr Large had explained the partner thing, he glanced at his watch and smiled evilly.

"Looks like two of our little trainees haven't arrived yet," He grinned, "What should we do while we wait for them?"

He glanced around to see if we had any suggestions. Almost all of us had the common sense not to say anything, but Zack, who I was now beginning to believe was making his life's ambition to be a cocky idiot, said, "Go back to sleep?"

We all stared at him incredulously. Mr Large pretended to consider for a few minutes, then shook his head, "No, I think I'll have you do press ups until our little friends arrive.

Several people groaned, and got hard glares from Large. We all got onto the floor and started.

After 5 minutes, my arms were killing, and my breath was coming in hisses. My stomach was just one big cramp. Raine grunted next to me, as she dropped to the floor, exhausted.

"Get back up and do some press ups!" Large practically screamed at her.

I smiled sympathetically at her as she began another press up. All we could hear was our laboured breathing, and the occasional sarcastic mutter from Zack. After a while even that stopped. Most of us weren't even doing proper press ups any more, just dipping down a few inches, coming back up, and staying in that position for as long as we could without arousing suspicion.

Suddenly, the sound of running footsteps rang through the concrete building. We all stopped and looked up, to see a short kid with glasses, and a t-shirt with the number 7 on it, come in panting.

"I'm really sorry I'm late, sir!" He panted, wincing as he saw, for probably the first time, Large's massive frame.

Large loomed over him, "Oh, really? Well, why don't you show us how sorry you are, along with the rest of your fellow trainees?" He roared, "50 star jumps, everyone!"

I couldn't withhold a groan of relief as I dragged myself off the floor. We all started jumping clumsily, our limbs still shaky after almost a whole hour of press ups. Number 7 joined in, shooting us all apologetic looks. After the star jumps, we had to do squats, and then sit ups. All of us had aching limbs by the time we heard running footsteps for the second time today. Another guy, this time tall and lanky, with a number 2 on his shirt, ran in, and skidded to a stop. He didn't even bother apologising as Large covered him in a shower of spit. Eventually, Large's shouting let up, and he gestured for us all to stop. We stood up slowly, and shook our arms and legs. I wasn't surprised to see that almost everyone was glaring at the new guy. I tried to reason that he had probably had some trick played on him, so being late wasn't his fault, but I couldn't stop myself from glaring at him.

"David," Large told the new guy, "Would you kindly stand on your head while I explain what's going to happen over the next 100 days?"

David went bent down and began to stand on his head. His legs wavered about in the air.

"Now, as you know, you're here for the next 100 days. This is of your choice-" I nearly snorted at that. Basic Training was my choice?- "And you can choose to leave at any time you feel like it, but you won't be able to come back. Once you're out of those gates," He said, pointing to the far distant fence around the outside of the compound, "You have to wait another 3 months until the next course. I would like to remind you that the fence there is to stop your friends from getting in, not to stop you from getting out."

David's legs were spinning wildly in the air as he tried to keep balance, and even I had to feel a little sorry for him.

"As you very well know, you won't have any breaks, any holidays, any weekends, nothing; everyday will be the same. You get up at 5:45, have a cold shower and get dressed before running the assault course. Breakfast is at 7, and after that, you have physical training until lessons start at 9."

David's flying feet hit the wall, and he tried to use it as leverage to get straight again. Large grabbed his lags and yanked them up, almost pushing him over.

"Keep your legs straight number 2!" Large yelled at him, and then he turned back to us, "Your lessons will consist of Weaponry, Survival Skills, Espionage and each of you will learn a new language. At 14:00, you have to complete the assault course again. 15:00 is lunch time. 16:00 is more physical training, until 18:00. At 18:00 you return here, have a warm shower, wash your clothes, and polish your boots and at 19:00, you get you last meal of the day. You then have half an hour, 19:30 to 20:30, to do any homework you were given in classes. 20:45, brush your teeth and lights out. We will make several trips outside of campus to test your skills that you have acquired during the lessons, so pay attention. At the end of the course, you'll be taking a 4 day trip to France. Unfortunately, you won't be sightseeing; you'll be up in the Alps, trying to keep warm." Large glanced at his watch, "Because of David, we are late. It's half 7, and you need to run the assault course still, well then, I guess you all will just have to make up for it by doing an extra hour of physical training this evening." Large growled, "Number 2, you can stand up now, and the rest of you, start that assault course now!"

We all jogged to the course as Mr Large shouted from behind us that we were to do it in pairs. We split up and I turned to Raine, "Anything I should know about before we start?"

Raine smiled grimly, "I can't climb very well at all,"

"Ok then, let's hope there's no climbing involved,"

Raine smiled and we set off round the course. The tunnels at the start of the course were about 20 metres long, and full of sticky mud, that seemed to cling to our clothes.  
After the mud tunnel, there was a thin stretch of water, and, to get across it, we had to swing from the dangling ropes above our heads. It reminded me of the monkey bars that you used to find in any decent local park. Next was the lake, where we had to use another piece of rope to swing as far across as possible, and swim the rest of the way.

My stroke quickly went from strong to a weak splashing type stroke. I may have mastered swimming in a pool, with warm water and no one around, but out here, I was already exhausted and the wind was conjuring up waves, which, admittedly, weren't very big, but they pushed at you constantly. Halfway across, I stopped. Raine, who had been swimming along side of me, looked back.

"Come on, Emma, the longer you tread water, the harder it's gonna get," She told me, swimming back.

I shook my head, "At this rate, I'm gonna end up drowning before we reach the other side,"

Raine studied me for a few seconds, "You're gonna get your sister and brother back, after all this, right?" She asked.

I nodded, "Why?"

Raine smiled, "From what I've heard about Anna, she would be standing on the other side of that lake screaming at you to move your butt before she got in and moved it for you,"

I sighed and shook my head. Raine seemed to understand exactly what my sister would do. I started swimming. Raine whooped approvingly, "Swim like you mean it, Emma, goddamn it!" She grinned, imitating the tone Andrew had taken on when he'd been helping me swim.

We reached the other side of the lake well behind the others, but I figured we'd be able to catch up sooner or later.

The rest of the course was hell, as I was freezing and tired. My whole body was shaking from exhaustion and cold, and I was caked in mud. Raine and I finished in front of Number 7 (who was apparently called Garry) and Tess, and Lilly and Jonah drew with us. Lilly told us that it was her first time, but Jonah had done 36 days of Basic Training last time, but he'd dropped out after he'd jarred his leg badly during a karate lesson.

Jonah and Lilly found a grotty looking standpipe, and turned it on, washing their necks and faces and, finally, their t-shirts. I looked at them curiously, but before I could ask what they were doing, Garry and Tess arrived and Mr Large herded us back together again for physical training. We ran, did squats, star jumps, press ups, sit ups, triceps dips, step ups and burpees- which is (if you didn't know) where you jump up, squat down, do a press up then jump up again- and by the time we had finished, I was ready to collapse.

We moved onto lessons, and I soon learnt why Lilly and Jonah had washed all the mud off their shirts as soon as possible. The mud had dried on my t-shirt, sticking into my back, and it was really, really itchy.

The school hours, despite the endless itching sound coming from everyone as they tried to peel layers of mu off their arms, were easy, and maybe just a bit relaxing, not that anyone wanted to admit it. The class rooms were cold and unheated, but that didn't matter. Survival Skills was interesting, and I didn't mind the Weaponry. The language part was hard though, as I had been given Chinese, along with Garry. Karate lessons weren't too bad, either, since I already knew a lot of it, but I didn't want to seem too good at it, and I didn't take pleasure in hitting Raine. I think, though, Espionage was the easiest so far. We were starting by learning how to hack computers, which my Dad had taught me when I was three. I wasn't anywhere near as good as Anna, but I was still tons better than everyone else. I bet that I could even beat the teacher, Mrs Flagg, at it, if I tried. The rest that lessons provided was short lived, however, as at 2 we were back on the assault course. This time, at the end, both Raine and I wasted no time resting, but went and washed our t-shirts off as best we could.

Lunch was bliss, as we got a hot drink with the meal. Everyone wolfed down all the food on their plates, so the majority of us had finished way before 4. None of us were quite sure what to do with the free time, so we sat at the table and talked.

Raine, Zack, Garry and I were the oldest there. Tess was 13 by only a few days, and Jonah was 12, Lilly was 11 and David was 10.

Mr Large interrupted our 'cute little conversation' as he put it, and we were back to physical training. It was brutal, but that was the point, apparently. It didn't stop me, however, from imagining as many different ways of ruining Mr Large's stupid sad life. I think that was the only thing that got me through the first day, which is beyond sad.

The hot shower was another highlight of the day. I might not have felt brand-spanking new, but I sure as heck felt cleaner than before. The dinner was mediocre, and the homework wasn't too hard either, but I think everyone was glad to climb into bed at quarter to 9. I sighed and huddled into my thin blanket, 1 day down, 99 to go.

Chapter 82

Dan and Andrew made their way over to Meryl's office. It was 6 o'clock in the morning, the day after Emma had started basic training, and both boys weren't too happy about the early start. They knocked on the door, and Meryl shouted at them to come in. The two boys walked in together and took a seat in front of Meryl.

"Why are we here, again?" Dan grumbled to Meryl.

Meryl glared at him, "You are here because I've heard from Anna, Dan,"

Dan shot up, "You have? Where is she? Why didn't you tell us before? Are we gonna try and get her back?"

Meryl held her hand up against the onslaught of questions. Dan gained some composure and sat back down again.

"_You_," Meryl said, putting stress on the word, "Will have to sit back and wait for the ethics committee to approve of anything before we can send you in. However, the letter that Emma almost succeeded in stealing was a reply from MI6, who are willing to orchestrate a mission to retrieve Anna and Arron,"

Andrew raised his eyebrows, "How... unusual. I wasn't aware that MI6 helped out on every kidnapping in England,"

Meryl scowled, "They don't," She answered shortly.

"So...?" Dan prompted.

"The people who we believe kidnapped Anna and Arron have committed several extremely well organised attacks against the government. They seemed to know every move that any of the organisations brought in to help would make. Anna and Emma's dad found a vital piece of information about them. He was... killed because they found out that he knew about them,"

Dan frowned. Why had Meryl paused before admitting that Anna's dad had been killed? He shrugged and got back to the matter in hand.

"Do they know where Anna and Arron are?"

Meryl nodded solemnly, "Somehow, Anna got hold of a laptop and managed to contact me. She sent a link for us to work out. We know where she was when she sent the message."

Dan froze, "What do you mean, when she sent the message? What do you thinks happened?"

Andrew leaned forward too, nervous.

Meryl sighed, "There is every possibility that they were moved elsewhere. Or something could have happened when they found Anna talking to me. Her last message was cut off, so we think that someone must have realised that we were talking."

Dan gulped. He hoped they hadn't hurt Anna if she had been caught talking to Meryl.

"So what are we going to do now?" Andrew asked finally, "Why did you _really_ ask us to come to your office at 6 o'clock in the morning?"

Meryl smiled, "Don't get your hopes up. The two of you are going to help plan the attack on the criminal organization's stronghold. You are not, however permitted to join in the attack, and you're only allowed a week off school, so no slacking,"

Dan and Andrew grinned triumphantly at each other.

"Excellent, when do we go?" Dan asked.

Meryl glanced at her watch, "Half an hour, get going,"


	17. Mission Impos No, wait, it is possible

sorry I took so long, my internet security died for sveral days. if you don't believe me, ask my friend! oh, wait, you won't know who she is... oh well, I'll give you a clue who it is so that if you ever meet her you can say hi!

clue= creative... studious... precise...

and for those of you who dont get it, it's an inside joke for weirdos like me who have no lives!

* * *

Chapter 81~Anna

I decided that to be able to hack anything, I had to eat first. Unfortunately for me, the only food available was the hunk of bread someone had chucked me a few hours ago, that had hit me on the head. If it hadn't been the only food I'd had in possibly days, I would've got up and thrown it right back at them. My mouth was unbelievably dry and a whole day sat in a room in front of a computer was neither helping nor hindering that fact. I was tired out, at least mentally, having used the extent of my brain cells to come up with security evading ways to access secret files. No luck. I was beyond worried about Arron, and I was still unsure of what had actually happened to Emma and Gabby. Mix that in with Bob forever hinting about my dad, but never actually admitting anything, and I was far stretched to come up with a more stressful situation where I couldn't just punch everyone. I know, I have violent tendencies, I reckon it's genetic. And that, my people, is how to get away with doing stupid shit; blame the parental units.

My eyes were sore from staring at the computer screen all day, and it reminded me of something my dad used to tell Emma and me when we were glued to the TV. He used to say; "You'll get square eyes from watching all that rubbish. Sit a bit further back, or you'll be so short sited you won't see squat. Do you want to end up with a squint like old Mrs Finchsmith from down the road?"

Emma and I would always back away from the TV with haste and watch from a safer distance.

I sighed and rubbed my eyes, mentally kicking myself for not concentrating. I leant, bleary eyed, over the keyboard, and typed in, for the millionth time, a coded message. I'd given up with any tact or style of hacking; the technique couldn't be fussed over at a time like this. If simplest was quickest and easiest, then simple it was.

Suddenly, the speakers on my computer began to blare out an intense wailing noise. Everyone tensed, and I jerked upright, staring at the screen in surprise. The login screen had changed, and instead there was, in bright red letters, the words; You Have Attempted To Retrieve Confidential Information Without Permission. This Is Against The Law, And Action Will Be Taken Against You. If the silence around me hadn't been so serious, I would've cracked up laughing. Against the law? Without permission? Action against me? Which one of these was supposed to bother me? I'd broken the law a dozen times already, hacking into the police computer system, and pretty much all hacking is against permission, that's generally why it's called hacking, and not, a sly-way-(that isn't really necessary because you've already been told you can)-to-get-data-from-someone-else's-computer. And, dude, I'm pretty sure being kidnapped would come under my 'Actions Taken Against Me' file.

The silence that seemed to last several decades, but was, as usual, probably only a few seconds long, was broken by a sudden flurry of activity.

Bob stormed towards me and my little guard chums, furious.

"What the hell is this about?" He spat at me.

"Dude, I'm trying to avoid being killed here, do you think I would purposely try to annoy you?" I asked, ignoring the fact that, most of the time, I _was_ purposely trying to annoy Bob.

Bob sent an enraged look at me before he turned to everyone else, "Grab the important stuff and get the hell out of here, full scale evac. Anything you can't take, destroy. Report back in at the southern office in this city at the most three days from now," He ordered his men, and the flurry of activity increased its tempo.

A beefy guy behind me hauled me out of my seat and shoved me back down all of those dreaded flights of stairs. I was too tired to look about and see where we were going. Maybe if I had, I would've seen the tell-tale signs, and recognised where I was, but I didn't look, so I didn't see those signs.

We arrived at what seemed to be a massive underground parking lot. There were at least 100 cars down here, and several vans along the wall. I was dragged up to one and shoved inside. Behind me, the door slammed shut, jarring my ears. I winced as the sound echoed inside the metal van.

I could still hear the commotion going on outside; people yelling, car tyres screeching, doors slamming, more yelling.

I slumped back against the van wall, too drained of energy to do anything else. A more pronounced commotion started up outside the van, and I could hear several more raised voices. Suddenly, the van doors were yanked open, and a figure that was too puny and insignificant to be anyone but my brother was shoved in. A massive hulk like guy- was this just the same guy, over and over again, or did they, like, mass produce burly guys who were actually robots?- climbed in the van too.

"Hands in the air, and on your knees!" He ordered the two of us.

We shuffled awkwardly into position, glancing quickly at each other to make sure we were both ok. Arron looked tired too, but otherwise ok.

The guy leaned forward and hit Arron hard on the head. He collapsed sideways. Unconscious.

I got up, "Hey! What was that for?" I yelled defiantly at him, checking to see if my brother was ok. The guy loomed over me, and I gulped; he was about 3 times the size of me, and, by the looks of it, considerably stronger. He grabbed me by the shoulders, wrenching my away from Arron and tossing me, like a rag doll, across the van. I hit my head hard, and sprawled on the floor. If I get hit on the head one more time –and yeah, even if it is by a piece of bread- I'm gonna get serious brain damage, I thought as I blacked out.

* * *

Chapter 82

Dan made his way back up to his room and packed a few spare changes of clothes. After a few moments of deliberation, he picked up a book off the floor, and his i-pod. As soon as he was sure he'd gotten everything, he headed back out, and met up with Andrew the two of them climbed back downstairs in silence. They made their way back over to the mission control building and waited just inside the door. A few minutes later, a man came over to them.

"I take it you two are Daniel and Andrew?" He asked.

Dan winced, "Please, just Dan,"

The man grinned, "I'm Kenedy, Peter Kenedy, I work for MI6. Now, if you don't mind, I would like to head off now; we've got a lot to get done,"

Peter led the two of them out of the building and down to the exit. Outside, a plain black car with tinted windows was sat waiting. They climbed in and pulled on their seat belts.

Peter turned to face them.

"So, I take it you know what's going to happen?" He asked.

"Yup, MI6 is gonna get back Anna and Arron, and we're gonna help plan the 'attack' thingie," Dan answered.

Peter nodded, "Good, you already know. Well, it saves us all time at least,"

Dan and Andrew sat awkwardly in silence, unsure what to say.

"Are you the guy that was one of Emma and Anna's dad's colleagues?" Andrew burst out finally, after several minutes of quiet.

"I was... close to their dad, yes," Peter said. Dan noticed that he was avoiding the question, but decided to leave it for the moment.

They lapsed back into silence.

"Did you know Anna and Emma well?" Dan asked.

"I've seen them occasionally, once every few months or so. I'm Gabby's Godfather, actually," Peter admitted.

The two boys sat up in surprise, "You are?" Andrew asked.

Peter nodded, "Yes, like I said before, I was a good friend of their dad. We met at college, though we were both... studying different things,"

"Cool," Murmured Andrew.

"Was Emma always the sensible one then, and Anna the crazy one, or has Emma just recently gotten serious? I'm dying to know, and Emma won't admit to anyone that she used to be fun," Dan asked, grinning.

"She still is fun, she's just being serious, too," Andrew said defensively.

Dan grinned cheekily, "Right, course, silly me,"

Andrew scowled, "Shut. Up. Dan."

Dan's grin widened considerably, and Andrew groaned.

"You are the most annoying person I've ever met! How have you ever made friends if you keep annoying them all to death?"

"I'm not doing anything," Dan said, looking about as un-innocent as possible.

Peter shook his head, amused, "I'm sure that you aren't doing anything, Dan, you just make it seem like you're about to play a practical joke on everyone,"

"Yeah, I believe I need to correct you're statement, Dan." Andrew butted in, " Did you mean 'I'm not doing _nothing_'? Because that would make a _lot_ more sense,"

Dan scrunched up his nose, "That isn't grammatically correct, though; the grammatically correct way of saying that would be I'm doing _something_, and I didn't say that, did I?"

Andrew growled in frustration and slapped a hand to his face.

"Did you know that every time you hit yourself on the head, you lose a brain cell?" Dan asked cheerily.

Andrew muttered to himself furiously. Dan caught a few words that he decided were best not to be repeated...

The car journey was, as most car journeys are, boring. The two boys were in the middle of a game of eye-spy when the car finally drove up a small road track, in the middle of nowhere. Up ahead, they saw a massive building, half hidden in the forest that seemed to surround them. The car stopped and Peter climbed out. Dan and Andrew followed suit. Dan looked around in amazement.

"This place is awesome," He breathed as they walked up to the large wooden oak door.

"Yeah, it was built back in the 80's, so it's a bit old fashioned, but it's out of the way, and no one knows it exists unless we show them it, so it works for us," Peter shrugged, opening the door to let them inside.

Andrew stepped in first. They were in a large sort of lobby area. Straight in front of them was a marble staircase that led upwards. The whole place was buzzing with activity as men and women rushed in and out of rooms and up and down the staircase.

"Wow, you guys heard of relaxing?" Andrew muttered as he looked around.

Dan came up behind him, "Sheesh, they look like the minute they stop work the whole world's gonna collapse on them,"

Peter grinned, "Welcome to one of the many bases of MI6. It's a busy place, so you gotta keep up with the rest of us if you want to get anywhere,"

He pushed forward into the crowd and made for the stairs. Dan and Andrew stayed where they were.

"Um... we're staying here for a week, right?" Andrew asked Dan.

Dan nodded, "Yup, why?"

Andrew gestured to the people around them, "I suddenly wish I'd got more sleep last night... do you have a coffee machine in your bag?"

"No, I don't, coffee is for lazy freaks that need help. If you were normal, you'd just eat a heck of a lot of chocolate; at least that _tastes_ nice,"

Andrew shook his head in disbelief, "You don't like _coffee_?"

Dan rolled his eyes, "You realised? Wow, that's just pure genius. Hey, shouldn't we be following Peter, anyway?" He asked, looking around suddenly.

Andrew shrugged, "We probably should be... you have any idea where he went?"

Dan shrugged back and dived into the crowd. Andrew was just behind him.

They arrived at the bottom of the staircase a few minutes later, having been pushed and shoved aside by about 50 different people.

"Is it just me," Andrew demanded, as they caught up with Peter, "Or were they deliberately shoving us?"

"I think it's just you; the rest of the world just isn't that paranoid," Dan grinned back.

"Gee, thanks, Dan," Andrew mumbled sarcastically.

Peter lead them through several corridors and into a large room. A large table sat in the middle of the room, taking up most of the space. Around the edges of the room were several computers that seemed to have been squished in as an afterthought, when someone realised that the computers were still needed, even if there wasn't enough space to fit all of them in.

Five people stood around the table, talking. Peter led Dan and Andrew over.

"Hi guys, I'm back," He grinned at them.

They turned and nodded respectfully at him, but didn't even acknowledge Dan or Andrew.

Peter rolled his eyes, "Their still obsessed with all the formal crap. You can't even strike up a conversation with these guys anymore; they just turn all stiff and official. It's damn right annoying,"

"Yup, and they seem to be partially blind, too," Complained Dan, "we do exist down here!" He muttered in the general direction of the table.

They moved closer to the table to see what the five of them were doing. Dan saw one of them was leaning over a laptop, typing furiously. A massive map of England was projected onto the table, and the four other MI6 agents were examining it closely.

"Have you cracked that code any further?" Peter asked the computer guy.

The computer guy shook his head, "We've narrowed it down as far as..." He clicked a few icons on his computer, and the map of England on the table, zoomed in suddenly. A city was now showing Dan leaned in to get a closer look. "Here, they are somewhere in this area!" Declared the computer guy.

Dan scrunched up his nose, "Where the hell is that?" He demanded incredulously.

Four of the five MI6 agents glared at him. Andrew rolled his eyes.

The computer guy coughed self consciously.

"Well, er...?"

"Dan," Dan told him.

"Well, Dan, that black blob there indicates where we are," The computer guy, or TCG, as Dan decided to call him, said, "And we are just outside Manchester,"

Dan nodded, "Oh, right, ok, I know where we are,"

Andrew raised an eyebrow, "You do?" He asked.

Dan nodded, "Like he just said, somewhere just outside Manchester,"

Andrew frowned, "Dude, that means you don't actually know where we are, you just repeated what someone's told you, you dipswitch,"

Dan grinned, "Yeah, I suppose... Do _you_ know where we are?"

One of the guys at the table coughed pointedly.

Dan pretended to look concerned, "Is there a cold going round? Everyone seems to be coughing!"

"No one has got a cold!" Snapped Guy 1. He glared disdainfully at Dan and Andrew and sniffed haughtily.

Andrew frowned, "You know what, Dan I _do_ think someone here's got a cold!"

Dan grinned, "Or at least a high opinion of their own importance,"

Andrew elbowed Dan. Guy 1 scowled and turned to Peter, "Remind me why these two are here?" He demanded.

Dan stepped forward, "Dude, you got our names wrong, I'm 1 and Andrew's 2, we're not These Two, that's my friend from Toronto," He grinned up at Guy 1, thinking swear words at the idiot in his mind. Guy 1 sniffed again.

"Do you want a tissue?" Andrew asked faking concern.

"I fail to see how a tissue is relevant to this conversation!" Guy 1 growled.

"Oh, Atissue is, though, he was the guy who drove us here," Dan added in annoyingly.

"Can we please stop all this nonsense?" Guy 1 screeched.

"Nonsense? Well, he really _isn't_ relevant to this conversation, why'd you bring him up?" Andrew asked.

Peter finally stepped forward to intervene, grinning, "Well, as amusing as that was, I really think we should get back down to business,"

"Yes, absolutely!" Agreed Guy 1 immediately.

Andrew and Dan rolled their eyes at each other and walked to stand next to Guy 1.

"Suck up," Hissed Dan, hoping to provoke Guy 1 further; he wasn't going to just drop any of it after Guy 1 had acted annoyingly superior when he was just as important as the two of them.

"Conceited freak," Andrew jeered, catching onto Dan's plan.

Guy 1 sniffed again.

"Are you _sure_ you don't need Atissue to drive you to the hospital, you sound like you've got a really bad cold there!" Dan jibed.

"Enough, you two," Peter ordered, and was treated to two angelic grins.

He sighed to himself; a whole week of self righteous, pompous idiots being wound up by two kids more than half their age, and just as equally important as them... what fun!

* * *

Chapter 83~Emma

Around about the fourth day, I realised that no amount of imagining ruining Mr Large's life was gonna get me through Basic Training. After the first two days, my imagination had run dry, and now, officially into the fifth, I was ready to call it quits and slap Mr Large to death, even if it meant walking out of the compound after.

The only thing that got me through was the other trainees. On a night, or during meals, we could talk to each other, and we got to telling everyone about our lives before CHERUB. It may have been a tad bit depressing in some cases, but it was the one piece of normality we had left.

I pulled my blanket closer to me, hugging it as hard as I could to keep warm. It wasn't anything as bad as snowing, or minus temperatures here, but that didn't mean everyone here was cosy and warm. I heard Lilly and Jonah talking in quietened whispers to each other and smiled. Lilly and Jonah were living up to their nickname; the lovebirds. That's what everyone here referred to them as now.

Raine leaned over to talk to me.

"Large said there was gonna be something different tomorrow. What d'you think it'll be?" She murmured under her breath.

"Nothing good, that's for sure," I muttered back.

There was a sudden scuffling outside the door. I sat up immediately, staring at the space under the door, where the light had suddenly been blocked. Everyone was awake and sitting up now.

"He's trying something!" Hissed Jonah, "Pretend to be sleeping now, or he'll punish us!"

Everyone had learnt to listen to Jonah now. He was the one who had done all this before. He had the most experience. He was the one to turn to if you were unsure.

We all lay back in bed, holding our breath, trying to figure out what was going on. The silence was eerie, unbearable almost, as we waited for something to happen.

Suddenly, Large burst into the room, making Raine and I jump.

"Out! Get out!" He screamed at us, and we all leaped out of bed. Somewhat reluctantly in my case. We ran down the corridor and outside. When I turned to looked back at the building, I saw a tiny, flickering flame appearing from where our room was.

Large came out, with Mr Speaks and Miss Smoke trailing behind.

"Right!" Roared Mr Large, "There are quite a few important things in there, and we don't want them to be destroyed! Of course, the building remaining intact would also be nice, so you need to think up a plan to put out all of those flames!" He ordered us.

Zack raised his eyebrows, "Two things, aren't there any fire alarms in there?"

Marge glared at him. Zack moved on quickly, but casually, "And, also, why do we have to come up with the plan? _You're_ supposed to be the ones with the 'brains'! Aren't we just 'worthless pieces of shit'" He quoted Large's exact words from this morning physical training.

"For that, you'll spend the remainder of the night outside!" Screeched Large.

"But, like, if the whole place burns down 'cos we're 'worthless pieces of shit', we'll all be spending the remainder of the night outside, won't we?" Zack pointed out. His sister elbowed him.

"Shut up!" She hissed.

Large growled at us menacingly then stomped off with Speaks and Smoke.

"So what are we gonna do?" I asked in the almost silence that followed. Behind us, I could hear the crackling of flames.

Raine frowned, "I don't know. It's stupid really. I mean, even if we are trainees, CHERUB still wouldn't be prepared to kill us..."

I frowned, "This isn't supposed to kill us, only challenge us, though,"

Lilly frowned, "No, that's not what she meant. I think Raine means that CHERUB should have installed fire alarms in the building, just encase something happened."

Jonah frowned, but nodded in agreement, "Fire alarms are not something I usually pay attention too, but I'm sure there was at least one in there," He said, gesturing to the building.

David nodded, "There's one in our room, and one in the dining room. You can bet that there'll be one in each of the staff's room's too."

"So... they must have... disabled the alarms then..." Tess frowned.

I looked up, "DO you think, if we turned it back on, it would trigger sprinklers, to put the fire out?"

The others looked at me in surprise.

Yeah, that would make sense. So all we need to do is find a way to trigger the alarms and then we're done," Garry agreed.

"Hurry up trainees! The fire's taking hold and you still haven't done anything!" Large shouted at us.

"Ok then," Jonah said, taking control of the situation, "Zack and Emma, you're the tallest, so you go back in there and try to set off an alarm. David, you're the smallest and quickest and you know where some of the fire alarms are, so you go with them and try to help find an alarm. Lilly, Garry, Tess, you find some buckets and some water and try to put out as much as the fire as possible. Raine and I will go in and try to get some of the stuff out, just encase we can't put it out. OK?"

Everyone nodded and Zack, David and I sprinted into the house. The crackling sound increased its intensity to an overwhelming noise that you had to shout over to get heard. We covered our ears and ran through the hallway and into the dining room. David sprinted around the room, looking for something on the wall to indicate a fire alarm. After a minute, he gestured upwards, shouting. Although I couldn't hear him, I could guess what he was saying; the fire alarms on the ceiling. I turned to Zack who grinned, crouched down and clasped his hands together, yelling at David to do the same. Wow, I was getting a lift to the ceiling.

I stepped onto their hands slowly, not wanting to lose my balance and fall. Above me, I spotted a box and reached for it. My fingers scraped across it and I grabbed at it, pushing the button. If I had been a centimetre shorter, I wouldn't have reached it.

The fire alarm wailed ominously and I jumped off Zack and David's hands and ran to the door. In front of us was a wall of fire, and the sprinklers, which had just switched on, were doing nothing to help except soak us all. I groaned.

Then it hit me. Well, not _hit _me, hit me, just, sudden brain wave, hit me. There was no heat coming from the flames. Tentatively, I stretched out a hand, and touched the flame. My hand plunged straight through it, and there wasn't the tiniest sensation of burning.

Zack and David were staring at the fire in disbelief.

"Come on!" I shouted to them, "It's not real fire! We can get through it!"

I dived through the wall of fire, the others hot on my trail. We ran back up the corridor and burst outside, grinning at the stunned faces of the other five trainees.

Jonah came over, "What happened?" He asked.

"The fire isn't real, that's why the sprinklers aren't affecting it!" I told him.

Jonah nodded thoughtfully as the others came over.

"So how do we stop it? If water can't?" Gary asked.

Tess frowned, "Well, if it isn't real fire, then we can presume it's a projection, or a hologram thingie,"

Raine caught on excitedly, "Of course! If it's a projection, it needs a power source! We've got to find where it's being projected from and destroy the power source!"

I looked around dejectedly, "But that could be anywhere!"

Tess shook her head, "No, not really, it would have to be quite high, so that no one could get in the way of it, so that rules out most of the area. And it would probably be a lot of equipment, so the hiding space would have to be quite big, therefore, accessible, otherwise we would have noticed it. It would also have to be near a power source, because I don't think this thing's running on batteries. There's only two places left I can think of that have all of these factors,"

David nodded, "The shed by the fence and the old oak tree,"

I scrunched up my nose, "The tree's hardly accessible!"

Jonah grinned at me, "That's all _you_ know,"

"Well, then, Tess, Emma, Raine and Gary can check the shed, and David, Jonah, Lilly and I'll check the oak tree!" Declared Zack.

We nodded and set off running. Jeez, I thought, I had been looking forward to a nice peaceful night!


	18. Shreddies! It's a type of cereal

more of mah story yayayayay! (... -_-)

* * *

Chapter 84~Anna

My head ached painfully as I sat up, groaning. I looked around to see that I was lying on the floor of a small, plain, unfurnished room. Arron was leaning against the wall, staring around, bored.

"Hi, you OK?" He asked as he saw me.

"Yeah, sure, fine, perfect, tip top, excellent, adequate, satisfactory, freakin' amazing, actually!" I grinned at him.

Arron looked weirded out, "What's with the optimistic attitude?" He asked nervously.

"Hmm? Oh, that. Fine then, if you want to be all doom and gloom; my head hurts, I've got about 50 million bruises, I'm thirsty and starving, I'm bored already, I miss Dad, I miss Emma, I miss Gabby, I miss Dan- never mind," I muttered, blushing at Arron's raised eyebrow.

I looked around again, and stood up, my muscles aching dimly, "At least there's a window in our room now," I mumbled, walking over to it.

There were bars in place over it, and we were about three storeys up, so escaping was not very likely, but it gave us something to look out at.

"Yeah," Said Arron, getting up to stand next to me, "There's always that,"

It was sunset outside- or sunrise, I wasn't entirely sure- and I could just make out the lights of the city, twinkling in the distance.

"Where are we? That's Manchester, definitely, but... this is kinda depressing to admit," I mumbled, "But, I've rarely ever actually been outside of Manchester, so I have no clue where we are,"

It was true for me; we hadn't been on a family holiday in years. Christmas, Easter, we just spent at home, it wasn't exactly as if we could afford to catch a plane across to France and spend the whole time in a luxury hotel.

Arron was the only one of us that had been able to _remember_ the family holidays we used to be able to afford.

Arron sighed, "Sister dearest, your geography skills suck," He told me.

"Gee, thanks, if we ever make it out of here, I'll promise to pay more attention at school, and let you know if I ever improve at anything,"

Arron grinned, and turned back to the window. Outside, it was getting darker. So, it's evening, then, I told myself.

"If the sun rises in the East and sets in the West-" My brother began, only to be interrupted by me.

"How the fuck did you know that?" I demanded.

Arron shrugged, "Looked it up. It's what it said on Wikipedia,"

I frowned at him, "You do know that you can't always believe everything on Wikipedia, don't you. I mean, anyone can add to it, or correct the info, but they can also just make up a whole ton of shit to put on,"

"Shut up, Anna, I'm trying to figure something out." Arron growled at me, then continued, "Let's go with the presumption that the sun rises in the East and sets in the West. Let's also presume that that city there is Manchester. It's right in front of us, so that makes things easier, and sun's setting in front of us,"

"So, if we're presuming that that's Manchester, and the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, then we should be East of Manchester," I scrunched up my nose, "Well, that's a lot of help,"

Arron looked at me, "How did you know the whole North, East, South, West thing if you didn't know which way the sun sets?"

I stared at him incredulously. Of all of the things to pick up on! "You know," I told him, "Never Eat Shredded Wheat. North, East, South, West. Easy!"

Arron shook his head, "You probably only remembered that because it had something to do with food," He sighed.

I grinned, "Well, not technically, I remember it because of the time Gabby stuffed her face with all those chocolate flavoured Shreddies, and tore the house apart because she was so hyper,"

Arron wrinkled his nose in confusion, "Shreddies? Aren't they, like, a type of Wheetabix?"

"Noooo," I said slowly, in a voice that indicated how stupid that ideas was, "The whole 'Knitted by Nana's' thing? The _cereal adverts about cereal being knitted by Nana's_!"

"What the hell?" Arron asked, "What kind of delusional freaks make cereal adverts about people's grandparents!"

"The people who advertise Shreddies," I told him solemnly.

"Riiiiiigghht," Arron muttered slowly to himself.

"Dude, just... just whatever, all right," I shook my head. Some people just weren't made to get weird adverts on TV.

* * *

Chapter 85~Emma

We raced over to the shed, Gary leading the way. Tess spotted a small rickety ladder poking out from behind the shed, and heaved it out. Raine and I ran to help, while Gary checked to see if there was a safe place to prop it up against the shed. We leant it against the spot Gary indicated, and Tess immediately vaulted upwards. The rest of us climbed up more warily.

There was a bag of equipment lying on the roof in front of us. Gary and Tess whooped and started forward.

"Wait!" Called out Raine, who was looking around the rest of the flat shed roof, "Don't go near it yet, we should look for the less obvious things, that they would have wanted us to miss,"

I looked around, and frowned, "Like, for starters, there isn't a projector here, so if the flames are a projection of some sort, then it isn't being projected from here, and that bag might be a trap,"

Tess and Gary looked around, and, seeing I was right, took a step backwards, away from the bag.

"So, what do you think _is_ in the bag?" Gary asked.

"I dunno," I mumbled.

Tess gave Raine a certain look and the two started forwards, skirting around the bag, to look behind it. I began to look more closely at the ground.

"Um... guys, are those...?" Gary's voice trailed off as he pointed to the wires that were going back and forth across the roof.

"Fuck. We were so close to stepping on them it's unbelievable!" I gasp, spotting one wire less than five centimetres from my right foot. I looked around, following the trail of wire. It lead up into the trees that surrounded the shed.

"If we break the wire, then I'm guessing that it'll pull something down from up in the trees," Tess mumbled, following my gaze upwards.

Tess and Raine continued moving, looking more carefully now, but Gary and I stayed put. I was clumsy enough in normal situations; it would be just my luck to trip over something now.

"There aren't any wires touching the bag, I don't think," Raine said, after a few minutes, "So, if we wanted to, we could move it. We can check what's inside,"

She knelt down by the bag as Gary, Tess and I made our way over. Carefully, Raine unzipped the bag, and we all peered in curiously, and gasped.

Inside were blankets, and chocolate bars, and some equipment I recognised from our lessons in weaponry.

"Why would they give us all this?" Tess frowned, "This is supposed to be basic training, so we shouldn't be able to have stuff like this,"

I coughed guiltily at the thought of the last of my chocolate bars that Raine and I had shared last night. Raine look equally embarrassed, but Gary shrugged.

"Dude, who cares!" He said, and made a grab for a chocolate bar.

"No!" Tess, Raine and I yelled, and I grabbed his arm.

"Just because the bag wasn't booby trapped, doesn't mean this stuff isn't. That would be just what Large would do. Give us a whole ton of stuff that we all really want, then take them away and destroy them.

Gary frowned, "So what do we do? I'm not just leaving all this stuff!"

I glanced around me, and realised, for the first time that the fire had 'gone out'.

"The other's have stopped the fire, guys, so we should probably decide quickly," I told everyone.

Just then, we heard some scuffling, and talking, and Zack popped his head up.

"Hey guys, what's taking you so long? The fire's out!" He hopped quickly up onto the roof.

"Woah! What's in the bag?" He asked, starting forward.

"No!" I yelled, at the same time as Tess shouted, "Zack, stop!"

But Zack, being Zack, ignored us, and stepped forward. Right onto one of the wires. It snapped immediately, and five mysterious objects fell out of the trees, onto the roof.

I didn't have time to check what they were, I just stared in horror, like everyone else, until Raine yelled, "Stun grenades! Jump!" And, ran to the edge of the roof, jumping down. We followed her instantly, leaping off the edge of the building, just as the stun grenades were set off. I fell to the ground as a flash of white light illuminated the night, and a massive BANG deafened me.

I must have blacked out for a few moments, because when I opened my eyes, I was curled up on the ground, a few metres away from the shed. My head was ringing violently as I staggered to my feet. I spotted Raine and Tess getting to their feet, and limped over to help them.

Zack was lying face down in the mud, less than a metre from the shed. We hurried over, spotting Jonah and Lilly helping Gary. David was already at Zack.

Tess knelt beside Zack.

"Zack?" She asked cautiously.

Zack groaned, "Owww," He mumbled.

"Zack! How could you, you idiot!" Tess shouted at him, now over worrying for him.

"What? How could I what? I'm lying on the floor, severely injured and no one seems to care!" Zack demanded.

I rolled my eyes, "You're _fine_, Zack. You're just being a wuss,"

"Am not!" Came Zack's injured sounding reply.

David smirked, "Right, 'course,"

"Get up, Zack, you idiot, you're fine, like Emma said. And anyway, you won't be getting any sympathy from anyone. If you had just stopped, then you wouldn't have stepped on that bloody piece of wire, and we would have been able to get the blankets and the chocolate bars," Tess growled at him.

"Great," Zack muttered, "Chocolate bars and extra blankets have more priority than me,"

"Damn right," Tess glowered at him.

"Quit squabbling, you guys. Large's just trying to make us hate each other. Do you _want_ to give him that satisfaction?"

Tess and Zack shook their heads grudgingly.

"Ok then, shake hands, both of you," Raine demanded

"You sound like some whacko school teacher," Zack grumbled.

Raine stared him down, and Tess stepped in front of Zack to get his attention, "Raine just saved our butts up there, because she realised what those were, if I were you, I would listen to what she has to say. I'm not doing this because I'm forgiving you, I'm doing this because of Raine," She growled, sticking her hand out.

Zack shook it sullenly.

We walked over to the others, who were still crowded round Gary. When I got closer, I could see Gary holding his arm in an awkward position, his face scrunched up in pain.

Lilly was sitting next to him, shaking her head sadly, "Face it, Gary, It's broken. I'm sorry,"

Jonah was on Garry's other side, "At least it was only a few days in. It would have been worse if it had been right at the very end,"

Mr Large, Mr Speaks and Miss Smoke arrived on the scene a few seconds later.

Large took one look at Gary's arm and escorted him out of the compound, leaving our goodbyes on our lips.

"Well," Miss Smoke grinned at us, "1 down, 7 to go. Now get back to bed, the lot of you!"

* * *

Chapter 86

It was their fourth day at the MI6 base, just outside of Manchester. Dan was woken up at 6:15 am, by Andrew.

"Let me guess. Another meeting?" Dan demanded immediately.

Andrew nodded, "They seem to crop up at the most unfortunate of times," He said dryly.

Dan shrugged on his t-shirt, "Well, at least we get to go to them, you know? I'd rather be at them, then clueless, and _Gordon_ would much rather we were in the dark about it all,"

Andrew nodded in agreement and they headed downstairs.

Over the past few days, they'd gotten to know the base well enough. They weren't really allowed in many of the rooms, but they had learnt the best, and most direct, routes to places, and that the quietest times in the hallways came when you least expected them.

They'd also learnt who quite a few people were around here. Guy 1, whose original name had been more fitting, was actually called Gordon. When Guy 1 had told Dan and Andrew this (in a highly annoying superior tone) Dan had commented that he'd once had an uncle called Gordon, who was really boring and got colds frequently. That had kinda wrecked the conversation. They also found out TCG's name. It was Fred. Which, Dan thought to himself, as they arrived outside the meeting room, has to be the most awesome name ever.

The two of them walked in without knocking, a habit they'd taken up to annoy Gordon. They still hadn't learnt the names of the other three agents assigned to work with them, so they were simply called Un, Deux and Trois. Why they were called 1, 2 and 3 in French didn't make much sense, but Dan and Andrew had been bored so...

Gordon looked up from the table as they went into the room, and he sniffed self righteously at them. Dan grinned and waved cheekily at him.

They took their seats near the head of the table and waited quietly for Peter to arrive.

It was another ten minutes before Peter came in, holding a pile of paper work and looking stressed.

"It's about time!" Gordon complained, "You're just about twenty minutes late!"

"Actually, he's only ten minutes late, dipswitch," Dan interceded, sticking up for Peter partially because it meant he could annoy Gordon, partially because he actually liked Peter.

Peter sat down with a sigh.

"Hey, what's up? Did we get anything back from those guys who went down to check the place out?" Andrew asked after a moment.

Yesterday, they had finally located Anna and Arron's position to a certain street, and had agreed to send two people out to check the place out.

Peter sighed, "Well, it was the right place. They were definitely there,"

"But..." Dan prompted, guessing there was more coming.

"But they aren't there anymore. There's nothing there except several trashed computers, and a fireplace full of burnt documents and ash. They somehow knew we had found them,"

"Well," Andrew began, trying to be logical, "They could have known ever since Anna sent that message. They could have moved straight away after that,"

Peter nodded, "It's a possibility,"

One looked up, "But you don't think that's when or why they left?"

"No, I don't. They looked liked they'd left in a hurry, but if they'd known that Anna had sent a message, they wouldn't probably have thought it got through. If it had, what's the worry; it would have taken us several days to form up, find them and organize an attack on the place. They wouldn't have been rushing anything,"

Fred coughed, "Um... sir?" He asked.

Peter sighed, "I'm not a sir, Fred, so just call me Peter,"

Fred nodded, "Right, well, yesterday, I got this paper off a friend of mine, who monitors the internet and computers around Manchester. My friend sent me the letter because the computer was in the same place as... as Anna and Arron. It has a few details on what they were doing, but it happened a few days ago. I think it might explain why they left,"

Peter looked up, "Do you have the information?"

Fred nodded, "Of course," He said, handing Peter a sheet of paper.

Peter read it through several times, looking stunned.

"What! What is it?" Demanded Dan finally.

"Someone was trying to hack into MI6's main computer system," He glanced down, less shocked and more curious. When he spoke again, he sounded almost wondering, "This reminds me of Michael's work. He used techniques just like this. I don't think he ever told anyone else how to do it though. If I didn't know better, I might've thought-"

He was interrupted by a stern cough from Gordon, "Well, we do know better. Michael Simons is dead. This isn't his work,"

Dan looked back and forth between the two men. He realised that they were talking about Anna and Emma's dad, but he could have sworn there was something he wasn't being told. He let it drop though, as he had something else on his mind.

"It might not be Michael's, but it could have been Anna's," He announced.

Everyone turned to stare at him.

"Think about it," He continued, "Michael was a good hacker, and Anna is his daughter, he would have told her _something_ at least. Anna's a really good hacker."

"But why would she- stupid question," Andrew interrupted himself, "If they knew how good she was, then they could have made her try to hack MI6,"

"I'm still not getting why they ran off," Number Three frowned.

"Whoever tried to hack in accidentally set off an alarm on their computer, and one on the MI6 main computer system. Actually, I'm shocked it hadn't gone off before that. Well, anyway, they set off an alarm, and it must have been what caused them to run off. Unlike Anna's code thingie, an alarm like that would have given their whereabouts away immediately, and we usually have a team ready to be sent off to arrest whoever set the alarm off."

Dan frowned, "I, like, didn't get half of that, but whatever,"

Andrew sat up, "If there's no one there now, could we go check it out?"

Peter looked up and nodded slowly, "It might be worth it. You two can go, and Fred. I'll arrange for someone else to go too, just in case."

"Whoa! We're finally doing something more than sitting on our arses talking about shit!" Dan grinned.

* * *

Chapter 87

Their car pulled up outside an abandoned house. It was massive, more like a mansions really, and everything about it seemed to shout at Dan not to go near it. It _looked_ dangerous, for crying out loud, Dan thought, how do houses _look_ dangerous!

To the right of the main door were several still-open garage doors. Dan peered inside. Not a single thing was inside there. He did notice, however, the set of stairs at the back of the room.

Dan, Andrew, Fred and two other guys who Dan was currently calling Left Foot and Right Foot, climbed quietly up the stairs and further into the house.

On the next few levels there were a few signs of someone who had been living there recently. Pieces of furniture, desks, chairs. There was even a kitchen full of fresh food.

Dan, Fred and Left Foot opted to check the bottom levels, while Andrew and Right foot checked the higher up levels.

There were one or two trashed computers lying around, but nothing serious. It wasn't until they reached the basement that they hit the jackpot. There were two rooms, in the basement. One room was bare, and completely empty. The other had a desk, and drawers, and a notice board. They checked everything, of course, but there wasn't much there. They were just about to go when Fred called them back.

"These two rooms are too small!" Fred announced looking around one room, then stepping into the other.

Dan raised an eyebrow, "No, they're not very big, are they?" He muttered dryly.

Fred rolled his eyes, "No, what I meant is that, on the levels above, there were at least four rooms, all this size on each level, and yet, down here, only two rooms can fit."

"So, like, there's a secret room here somewhere?" Dan asked.

"Possibly," Fred nodded.

Dan chewed his lip, "How would you get into the secret room, then?"

Fred looked around the room, "Look for a lever of some sort, or a button,"

The three of them started searching everything again.

"Nothing!" Dan scowled after several minutes. He cussed and kicked the desk so hard it moved several centimetres backwards. "Shit! Ow!" Dan cried, grabbing his foot and hopping madly.

Fred, however, was ignoring him, and had moved over to the desk. He pushed it further aside and inspected the wall that the desk had been propped against. Left Foot went over to help Fred as they felt along the skirting board for a button of some sort to press. It was, again, Dan who found it, completely by accident.

"What are you two doing?" He demanded, sitting down beside them. He leaned against the wall, supporting himself by putting a hand on the floor. Right where the concealed button was.

"Hey! What's happening!" Dan yelped as the floor and wall he had been leaning on fell in backwards, and he was shoved into the secret room upside down.

Fred and Left Foot looked at where Dan had been just a moment ago, in disbelief.

"Even if I could find that trigger, there's no way I would have been able to fit through _that_ hole!" Fred gulped.

Left Foot looked at him. "Only a child would be able to fit through there, or, perhaps a good deal of important paperwork, shoved in hurriedly so no one could find them if the place was searched. If there was paperwork being hidden, then someone would want to get it back. If they can't get in there, then there must be another entrance,"

The two men got to their feet and headed to the door.

"You forget, though," Fred said, looking around the house with renewed urgency, and nervousness, "Whoever wants it back, will have to come here to get it back, and they could come at any time,"

Left Foot looked up at Fred, "Then I suggest we find Andrew and my friend, and find this secret entrance together. I would rather not have us all split up if an unwanted guest arrives."

They made their way up the stairs. Fred was nearly at the top when Left Foot signalled for him to be quiet. The two of them held their breath and strained to hear what was going on. On the floor below, the bottom floor, they could just make out the sound of a key twisting in the lock, at the front door.

"If I were you," Left Foot murmured to Fred, "I would hurry up and move. The others will have no clue we have a guest, and you can bet he will be heading straight for the entrance of the secret room. Which could, of course, be on any level in the house,"

Fred gulped and started up the stairs again.

Andrew and Right Foot were having a less interesting time. All the floors they had visited had either nothing in them, or trashed up mess. The top floor was no different. There were about twenty computers dotted around the room, and all of them were trashed.

"Well, there's nothing here," Andrew sighed, poking the remains of the nearest computer, "Should we look around more, or just go back downstairs?"

Right Foot opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by Left Foot and Fred bursting into the room.

"What's going on! Where's Dan?" Andrew demanded, starting forward.

Left Foot waved his hands about angrily, telling them to be quiet.

"There's someone here!" Hissed Fred, "Dan fell into the secret room we found, but we couldn't fit through the gap, so we went to find another entrance and we heard someone unlocking the front door,"

Andrew stared at them opened mouthed. "We have to find Dan!" He whispered fiercely.

"We know that! But the only person who can fit through the only entrance we know about is you!" Fred hissed.

"Then, I'll go through that, find Dan, and meet you outside the garage in 15 minutes! You guys either get out without being noticed, or, if you are noticed, take the guy down and wait for us outside the garage!" Andrew murmured back.

Left Foot frowned, "We're supposed to protect you, not let you run around right in front of people's noses. You aren't even meant to be here!"

"Well, neither is Dan, and the only person who can help him is me!" Andrew argued.

Right Foot hesitated a moment, then nodded, "Fred and I shall go outside immediately, you two find the secret entrance, then Richard can come back up and we'll wait 15 minutes. If you're not out by then, we're going in, understood?"

It took Andrew a second to figure out that Left Foot's name was actually Richard.

"Ok, will do. Now let's go!" Andrew agreed, and all five of them set off down the stairs.


	19. Annoying Arron and Planning Raids :P

OoOoOoOoOoOoO I've posted some more, now you've got to R&R (read and review for all those who didn't get that :P) and I'd like to thank everyone who already has reviewed, 'cos you're all just generally awesome!

* * *

Chapter 88

Dan yelped as he landed head first onto a massive pile of paper. He scrambled up, sending papers flying. It was pitch black in the room, and he panicked for a few seconds, before calming down and trying to find the light switch. It took a few seconds, but eventually they switched on. Dan blinked several times and looked around.

He realised that he must be in the secret room. In front of him was a large room, with a long desk down one side, a small bedroom in the corner and a bathroom. There was also a mini kitchen that, on a quick inspection, seemed to be well stocked with lasting food. Clearly, this place was designed for one or more people to survive independently for a week at least.

Dan walked over to the desk, curious. The piles of paperwork were scattered about madly because of his rather abrupt entrance. He stacked them again carefully, glancing down at the sheets and occasionally reading what they said.

Once he had finished stacking, he started to explore further. There was a laptop hidden in a little shelf under the desk that Dan discovered only because he had spotted a stray piece of paperwork under there.

Dan took it out and loaded it up. No password was required. Dan grinned; this was too easy. He clicked on My Computer and skim-read the file names.

Government Attack 11, Drug Smuggling Catalogue 89-03, Drug Smuggling Route 09-11, Contacts, Accidents...

Accidents? What sort of Accidents did these people make? Dan clicked on the file and another list of files came up. This time with names. His heart in his mouth, Dan scrolled down to the S's

Sanderson, Smith, Spencers, Simons.

Dan clicked on the last one, and a document opened. At the very top read; Michael Simons. 3 daughters. 1 son. 1 wife. Job; Works at BBC, filming and editing? Accident occurrence; 25th Oct 2010. Possible significant threat.

And underneath, in bold letters were the words; **Deceased? 26/10/10**

Dan frowned. Why was there a question mark after terminated? Did that mean that Michael wasn't dead?

He looked around, trying to find a memory stick to download all of the information onto, or at least a piece of paper. Heck, maybe he could just take the laptop back.

You can't! They'll know you've been here then! Dan snapped at himself. He checked under the desk again, to see if anything else useful had been hidden away there. Nothing. He sighed, got up, and began to search the room.

He stopped off at the kitchen, seeing an open 15 pack of Mini Rolls sticking out of the side of one of the cupboards. He grinned and helped himself. Something fell out of the pack. Dan yelped and jumped back, imagining a bomb, or grenade, or a poisonous spider. When nothing happened after a few seconds, he leant down to inspect it, and grinned; it was a memory stick.

Shoving the rest of the Mini Roll in his mouth, he picked it up, and headed back to the computer. He plugged it in and checked what was in it. A few files on the drug smuggling route. Checking the memory sticks capacity, he began to download the computer's contents.

While it loaded, Dan explored further around the room. In the middle was an elegant oak table big enough for six, with the light hanging down from the ceiling. Dan gasped as he saw what was on it.

There was the printed out file on Michael Simons, but next to it, there was one on Arron and Anna. He grabbed Anna's and lifted it up to read.

Anna Simons. Age; 14. Father; Michael Simons. School year; 9. 1 brother. 2 sisters. Extra Information; Extremely good at hacking, knows some self defence.

There was a picture of Anna in one corner. It looked hot and sunny in the back ground of the picture, and Anna was standing in the middle of the picture. She was wearing a strappy top and mini-shorts, and was laughing at someone out of the view of the camera. Dan smiled, folded up the piece of paper and tucked it into his trouser pockets.

He moved on from the table, and walked round the room. In the far corner was a set of spiral stairs leading upwards. Dan started up them curiously.

Dan was almost to the top when he heard the tell-tale rattle of a key in a lock. He froze. Was that Andrew and co. trying to find him, or was it someone else. The eerie silence was suddenly more apparent as the rattling noise grew louder. Dan looked around, panicking, and chickened out.

He sprinted back down the stairs and dived behind the pile of paperwork that he'd so neatly stacked only ten minutes ago. A sudden ear-jarring grating noise came from behind him, and he was forced to the ground by a large heavy, bony object.

"Ow! Shit!" He cussed, rolling out from underneath it.

"You think?" Andrew growled.

Dan stood up, "Oh, hi," He muttered.

Andrew stood up too, looking around cautiously, "Why the heck were you hiding behind here?" He demanded.

Dan looked towards the spiral staircase.

"Someone was coming in from the door! Squat down here and keep quiet!" He hissed.

A sharp beep called across the room, and Dan looked up to see that the computer was still on, with the memory stick still in it. He knew that there was way too much valuable information on it to just leave it. Praying beyond hope that the guy at the door wouldn't see or hear him, he dashed over and yanked the memory stick out.

Above him, he could hear someone climbing down the stairs. He jabbed the power button on the laptop and slid it under the desk, before running back across the room and diving behind the pile of paper. The sound of footsteps stopped and Dan and Andrew peeked out to see what was happening. Dan winced as he realised that they'd left the light on. The man at the bottom of the stairs was staring around curiously. He seemed to hear something, and paused for a second, before starting forwards again. He was walking right towards Dan and Andrew.

Dan stared around desperately, looking for something better to hide behind, but they were backed right up against the wall.

The wall! He gestured madly at Andrew to sit against it, and they sat as close together as they could. The man was almost at the pile now, and Dan was still frantically searching for the button that would trigger the secret entrance, and, hopefully, get them out of the room. He wasn't even sure there was a button.

Suddenly, his fingers brushed against something sticking out of the floor. He clicked it immediately, and the wall started to shift backwards, just as the man spotted them. Dan could feel the wall moving, and tried desperately to squeeze him and Andrew into the tiny space.

"Hey!" The yelled, trying to grab their legs, "What are you-" His voice was cut off as they were pushed upwards and fell backwards into the office room in the basement.

Dan groaned as he dragged himself away from Andrew. They untangled themselves and jumped up quickly.

"That guy's gonna be after us any minute," Breathed Dan, still getting his breath back from all the running and panicking.

Andrew nodded, "The others are waiting in the garage,"

They sprinted up the stairs and made their was straight out of the front door, no longer bothering with secrecy; the man already knew they were here, so what was the point in keeping quiet.

Right Foot and Fred spotted them running from the house and caught on immediately; running to the car parked at the end of the street, where Left Foot was revving the engine. They all collapsed in the car, and Left Foot's foot was pressing down on the accelerator before the doors were even closed.

A man appeared at the end of the street, running after the car, screaming and yelling, but he was nowhere near as fast as the car, and soon he was just a little figure very far away.

Dan breathed a sigh of relief and sat back in his seat, strapping himself in.

"We fucking did it!" He grinned.

Andrew frowned, "Did what?"

Dan frowned too, and shrugged, "I dunno, that's what everyone always says when they get away from someone, so..."

Andrew rolled his eyes, "Honestly, Dan, that is the most ridiculous piece of shit I've ever heard!" He paused, "Why did you run back across the room, back there, anyway?"

Dan grinned, "Why do you want to know? Are you jealous that I actually might have found something worthwhile?"

Andrew shook his head, "No, not at all, I was just wondering if you'd dropped another Mini Roll wrapper over there, 'cos one fell out of your pocket a few minutes ago,"

Dan scowled.

* * *

Chapter 89~Anna

"I spy with my little eye, something beginning with... A... B..." I said, staring out of the window.

"A bird?" Arron asked.

"Nope,"

"A... bunny?"

"No,"

"A... I can't think of anything else beginning with B," Arron admitted.

"A bowl, idiot!" I sighed. We had played every game we could think of, and then some. Now we were running dry of ideas. We'd been here... around about 2 sleeps (fuck counting days, I can never tell whether it's evening or morning, and it's winter still, so half the days are just as dark as the nights!).

"Anna, you have to say something that you can actually see," Arron rolled his eyes.

"Fine then!" I snapped, "I spy with my little eye, something beginning with... A... B... O... G!"

"And it's only supposed to be one word."

I didn't answer.

"Fine then... A big oval glass?"

"No,"

"A... brown oval grain?"  
"Uh... hell no,"

"All burgundy oranges gawp?"

"What. The. Fuck?"

"Just tell me what it is!"

"It's A Blade Of Grass! Dimwit!"

"How was I supposed to get that?"

"It's I spy, Arron, you're supposed to guess, that's how you play," I said on a tone that emphasised how obvious it was.

"... Let's play a different game..."

"...Can't think of one..."

"Shit,"

"You think?"

"Shut up, Anna,"

"Oooh! I know! I'll say a name, and you've got to think of a name beginning with the same letter as the last letter of the name I say!"

"Huh?" Arron said, looking confused.

"I'll start then! Um... Abigail. Now, you've got to think of a name beginning with L."

"Larry,"

"Yvonne,"

"Eliza,"

"Angel,"

"Lizzi,"

"India,"

"April,"

"Lola,"

"Amelia,"

"Arron,"

"Natalie,"

"Emma,"

"Anna,"

"Ok, I'm bored," I sighed.

"Me too," Arron agreed, "You kept coming up with crappy names,"

"Me? What about Larry? Who the fuck's called Larry nowadays!" I demanded.

"No comment,"

"No comment my arse! You just don't want to admit I'm right!"

"Well, you're not, anyway," Arron countered.

"So am," I argued.

"Not," Arron muttered.

"Am," I repeated.

"Not," Arron repeated.

"Am,"

"Not,"

"Arron?" I asked sweetly.

"What?" He sighed.

"STINKS!" I yelled, and cracked up laughing.

Arron shook his head, "How is that in anyway amusing?"

"I laughed, therefore it was amusing," I answered, crossing my arms and glaring at Arron.

"Who cares!" Arron groaned, "I don't care if I lose another verbal battle with you. I just don't want you to _start_ another verbal battle!"

"Huh?"

"You're intellectual skills need to be improved vastly, Anna," Arron said, once again shaking his head.

"You what?" I asked incredulously. What the fuck was this guy on about? It was like he'd literally swallowed a dictionary!

"Never mind..." Arron sighed.

"No, seriously, what?" I demanded.

"Doesn't matter..." Arron mumbled, grinning annoyingly.

"You don't matter, Arron," I snapped.

"Your _face_ doesn't matter," Arron retorted.

"Your _mum_ doesn't matter," I growled.

Arron paused, "... I can agree with that, actually,"

"You think?" I demanded.

"Quit saying that!"

"Saying what?"

"Just... Just shut up, OK?"

"Sheesh, _sorry_, grumpy guts," I grumbled.

"Get lost," Arron moaned.

"Already am, I have no idea where we are,"

"Shove off," Arron snapped, scowling at me.

"Can't, the door is locked," I replied scornfully.

"Well, that's just great, isn't it?"

"Totally,"

* * *

Chapter 89

Dan sat down at the conference table. Andrew had already arrived, and so had everyone else, so he was the last one. Gordon gave an almighty self righteous sniff which was ignored by everyone, apart from Andrew, who glared at him. Dan attempted to kick Gordon under the table.

"So, I hear you had quite a time earlier today, running away from bad guys and exploring secret rooms!" Peter grinned.

Dan grinned back, "I've got more than one bruise off where Andrew landed on top of me when he came down to tell me to get out,"

Andrew stifled a laugh, "You think? I've got a massive bruise on my ribs. Falling down on someone's bony elbows _hurts_!"

Dan stuck his tongue out, then turned back to Peter, "There was a computer hidden in the room, and I managed to save all of the files onto this memory stick," He fished the memory stick out of his pocket and gave it to Peter, "Here it is! It's got quite a bit of information on it!"

Peter pocketed the memory stick and nodded his thanks, "Right, so while you three were at the house," He said, gesturing to Fred, Dan and Andrew, "We brainstormed ideas on how to find Anna and Arron's new location, and we came up with an idea. We sent a few people down to the streets around the house and got them to ask people if they saw any vehicles driving away from the house quickly, and where they were heading. We got several answers, all pretty vague, but in all of the answers, they claimed that any vehicles rushing away from the house headed east, and out of the city,"

"Is that very helpful?" Andrew asked after a few moments.

"Surprisingly. A few years ago, we planted an inside man in their community, and he has informed us that they have only three bases near Manchester. One is in Manchester, the one you visited, one is to the north, just outside of Manchester, and the last one..."

"Is to the east of Manchester," Finished Dan.

Peter nodded, "So we know where they are again, or at least, roughly where they are, as our inside man can't get exact directions to the place,"

"Right... what do we do now, then?" Andrew demanded.

Peter bit his lip, "You boys have 2 days left, after this; there isn't really much you can do now,"

Dan and Andrew stared at him, "So, you're like, sending us back?" Dan asked, "No way, not happening! If all we get is a week to help, then I'm spending the whole week helping!"

Peter shrugged unhappily, "I'll have to report what happened today at some point, and the ethics committee might decide that it's too dangerous after what happened, so you might still go home, even if I don't send you there now,"

Dan scowled, "So we won't go outside the building then, we'll stay here for the next two days, like, right here,"

Gordon coughed, "Well, you might be more of a hindrance than a help here,"

Andrew and Dan glared at him.

Peter sighed, "I'll have you two help out with the equipment for the raid. The only thing that can go wrong there is if you shoot yourself,"

Dan looked around the basement in awe. It was the next day, and he and Andrew had been shown down to the basement, where they would spend the majority of their time, today and tomorrow. All around them were crates and shelves filled with every weapon imaginative. Bombs, grenades, guns, police batons, even swords.

Mr Grym, or Timothy, as he insisted they call him, was in charge of weaponry, and the basement was his, almost lair, really.

Dan walked over to the crate of swords, and picked one up. It was surprisingly heavy, but not too heavy he dropped it.

"Wow, this is awesome! Why do we need swords?" Andrew asked, glancing at Timothy as he picked one up and swung it clumsily.

"Don't stab yourself there!" Timothy cautioned, repositioning the sword in Andrew's hand so he was holding it properly, "The swords are here because they work when all else fails, even if they are old fashioned, and barely anyone knows how to use them,"

Dan copied Andrew's loose hold on the sword, trying not to drop it, "So, what've we got to do here?"

Timothy grinned, "Nothing much. I've got an extremely short list of weapons here, all you've got to do is collect them and make sure you put them in the right places. After that, well, you can decide what you want to do after that,"

Dan and Andrew grinned, and Timothy produced a piece of paper from his pocket with a flourish.

"Right, I want 10 hand grenades. That's that box there, Dan. Andrew, collect 5 machine guns and a rifle from that box over there, and the one next to it, then bring them to me, and I'll show you where to put them. It's very important none of this gets mixed up. You don't want someone setting off a bomb when they thought it was a smoke grenade. Although that does happen sometimes..."

Timothy had been right, the list was very short, and they were done in less than an hour.

Dan scrunched up his nose in confusion, "So, that's two days worth of work in one hour... what do we do now?"

Timothy grinned, "There'll be more work tomorrow Dan, don't you worry but, for now, I suggest something fun. Do both of you know how to shoot guns, then?"

Andrew and Dan nodded. Timothy sighed, "Well, I was going to offer to teach you how to use smoke grenades, but I presume you already know how to do that?"

Again, Andrew and Dan nodded. Dan glanced back towards the sword crate. "I don't suppose you'd teach me how to use a sword, would you?"

Timothy grinned, "Ah! The old fashioned way it is then! What about you, Andrew? You know all the modern stuff, why not try some ancient tech! Or, at least, ancient stuff. You don't have to use a sword, you could try out a bow and arrow!"

Andrew looked up, "That would be awesome!"

Timothy grinned at them both, "Well, Dan, grab a sword for you, and a sword for me, and Andrew, grab a bow and some arrows, and we'll go through to the firing range; there's more space and less clutter, in there,"

They walked through a door at the back of the room and entered a large hall. AT the far end were some targets, and a few mats were stacked up against the wall, though Dan had no clue why they were needed. Timothy showed Andrew the basics of shooting, then turned back to Dan.

"So, first of all, you've got to _hold_ the sword properly, otherwise we'll never get anywhere! Move your hand further up, that's better, now..." Timothy continued to tell Dan how to use a sword, and, by lunchtime, Dan could actually swing a sword effectively.

They had a meeting after lunch, so they couldn't carry on practising, but, Dan reminded Andrew, they still had tomorrow morning.

"That was actually really cool, though," Andrew told Dan as they ate lunch, "I can't aim worth a shit, but it wasn't so bad. Timothy is awesome!"

Dan grinned, "Yeah, he's mental at sword fighting as well. We had a go just before lunch and he thrashed me!"

Andrew glanced at his watch, "I hope this meeting doesn't last long, I want to have a relaxing afternoon,"

"Relaxing, here? Not a chance!" Dan replied, smiling.

Andrew picked his cup off his tray and offered it to Dan, "Coffee?"

Dan made a face, "Coffee's for lazy freaks,"

The room was, once again, full, by the time Dan and Andrew arrived. Peter smiled at them as they took their seats, and Fred waved at them.

"So, what's with the meeting, then?" Dan asked, turning to Peter.

"Yeah, what's with the meeting? What's happening?" Andrew asked.

"Well," Peter started, "We've got some people searching the area where we know the base is, and, our inside man managed to get a blueprint of the building. If all goes well, we plan to raid the place in two day's time,"

Dan's eyebrows shot up, "Two days time! That's... soon,"

Peter shrugged, "We know all we need to, we're not helping anyone by sitting around doing nothing,"

Andrew frowned, "We're going home tomorrow, then?"

Dan slapped his forehead, "Aw, man! That's so unfair!"

Andrew stared at him incredulously, "You're acting like a child, Dan," He said in a superior voice.

Dan grinned, "I am a child on the inside. Blowing up buildings fills me with a secret kind of glee!"

"I don't think there'll be any blowing up buildings involved, Dan," Peter intervened.

"But, you'll let us tag along, won't you?" Dan persisted.

"Child!" Andrew hissed between fake coughs.

"Spoil sport!" Dan coughed back.

Peter stared at them dubiously, "I have explained before, you two, that you were never going on the raid in the first place,"

"Yeah, but we could like, hang back and just... observe... it's only one extra day!" Dan argued.

"Yeah, just one extra day!" Andrew joined at him.

Dan glared at him, "Dude, you're supposed to be acting superior!"

"Oh, yeah, right, sorry," Andrew muttered, before straightening his back and coughing to gather everyone's attention, "Ahem! I think this whole thing is ridiculous. Dan and I shall return to... Dan and I shall leave tomorrow, as planned, and everything shall go on as normal. We will look forward to seeing our good friends – well, in Dan's case, _very _good friends- back at... soon,"

Dan scowled at Andrew and blushed deeply, "I'm the guy who makes all the shit jokes about other people's innocent relationships to make them feel awkward, not you!"

Andrew raised his eyebrow mockingly, "Oh, really? Well, consider this pay back. At least I don't announce it in front of-"

Dan coughed, "Back to the matter at hand. We don't want everyone to know the details of our entire social life!"

Andrew blushed as red as Dan and turned back to Peter, who was staring at the two boys with an expression torn between amusement and disbelief.

"Sorry," Andrew muttered.

"No, it's OK, your antics were... somewhat amusing," Peter replied, hiding a grin, "I suppose we could request your services for just an extra day. If we get Arron and Anna, I'm sure they'll want some company their age rather than some..." He stared pointedly at Gordon, who was looking at his watch and tapping his foot, "Older, perhaps, slightly... snobbish adults,"

Andrew and Dan cracked up laughing as Gordon turned his attention back to Peter.

"Did I miss something?" Gordon asked, staring at Dan and Andrew as if they were crazy.

"Yup, we were just discussing conceited people. Someone in this room came to mind," Dan grinned pointedly at him.

"The subject seems highly entertaining for some. But this is not the time for messing around, now is the time for action! We must-"

"Aaand, cut! Now, all we've got to do is add in the cheesy music, and we're done. Great improvisation, by the way, excellent delivery of the speech," Dan interrupted Gordon.

"Dude, he had the script under the table the whole time, he wasn't improvising at all!" Andrew whispered.

Dan tutted, "Shame!" He shook his head disapprovingly and turned back to the conversation, "So, we can stay?"

Peter nodded, "But you go straight back after the raid, whether we get Anna and Arron back, or not,"

* * *

ooooooooh... the end is near! (not all dramatic, the world's gonna die, I mean all dramatic, the end of the story is approaching, don't start prepariing for 2012 yet, people!)


	20. Guns

Chapter 90

"Good to see you two again! We've got a lot of work to get through, and I was worry you two would skive off after you'd had your lunch!" Timothy grinned at them as Andrew and Dan appeared at the basement door.

"Lots? Or, like, an hour's worth?" Andrew asked, yawning; he'd had very little sleep last night and no amount of coffee was helping.

"Lots," Timothy replied, "Raids don't organize themselves you know!"

"Yeah, we know. What do we have to do now?"

"Well, I want each agent armed to the teeth when they go tomorrow; we have very little knowledge on the defences at the base, but this is a criminal organization, they could have anything, and I'm not taking any chances!"

"Paranoia, even the most trusting of people get it," Dan nodded knowingly.

Timothy grinned, "Watch yourself boy, you're in a room filled with highly dangerous weapons; you might not want to insult me!"

"Like I said, Paranoia," Dan grinned.

"Right then, we'll start off by moving all those heavy guns that our men will have to carry on their backs. Each one of them needs to be taken apart and cleaned. Let's get to work!"

Dan groaned, "This is because I called you paranoid, isn't it?"

"No time for chit chat, we've got work to do!" Chanted Timothy as he headed across the rooms in search of the right crate.

"Why thank you, Dan, for getting us into this," Andrew scowled.

Dan stuck his tongue out, "It'll do you some good!" He said mockingly.

Unfortunately, it can only do you a certain amount of good, after that, it's just horrible, Dan thought as he collapsed onto his bed that night, aching and sore all over from sitting on a hard stone floor all afternoon.

"Did I tell you how much I hate you?" Andrew groaned from across the room.

"Yup, like, a thousand times," Dan sighed.

"Good, 'cos I really do hate you, Dan," Andrew replied.

"That's nice to know, Andrew, but I don't really give a shit right now." Dan replied.

Andrew didn't reply, and it took Dan several moments before he could hear Andrew's snoring and realised that he was asleep.

"You know," He muttered as he rolled over on to his back, "Its bad manners to fall asleep in the middle of a conversation,"

Dan was woken up the next day by an alarm on Andrew's phone.

"Switch it off! Switch it off!" He groaned, shoving the pillow over his head.

"I can't," He heard Andrew muffled reply, "I can't find it. Oh, there it is!"

There was a massive THUMP as Andrew fell on the floor, then, a few seconds later, the alarm switched off.

"Why the fuck did you set the bloody alarm in the first place!" Dan demanded, sitting up.

"Because..." Andrew yawned.

"Because?" Prompted Dan, standing up and looking around the room. The few personal items they'd brought here were all packed up in his suitcase. He looked through the neatly folded clothes, messing them all up in the process of finding some clothes to wear.

"Because, we're leaving early, remember?"

Dan glanced at his watch, "Since when was the arranged time 5 o'clock in the morning?"

"We need to meet at half five to get to their base anyway, Dan, quit complaining,"

The two of them got changed in silence, too tired to make any sort of conversation. They headed down for breakfast and Dan piled his plate high with pancakes which, for once, they'd arrived early enough to grab. On most days, the pancakes were all gone by 7.

Andrew shook his head in disapprovingly, and pilled his own plate high with bacon and eggs.

They sat down and dug in, Dan adding so much chocolate and maple syrup to his pancakes they became sticky, gooey blobs rather than pancakes. Andrew gagged at the thought of touching one of them.

"It's so sickly sweet, it's disgusting!" He exclaimed, prodding Dan's plate.

"And _that_ is what makes it a pancake!" Dan grinned, shovelling in another mouthful and getting maple syrup all round his mouth.

Andrew faked being sick several times and Dan rolled his eyes.

They were just scraping their plates clean when Fred came up.

"Hi you two? Getting ready for the raid, then?" He asked, sitting down with his plate, also stacked high with pancakes, which were also covered in maple syrup and chocolate sauce.

Andrew gagged, "Jesus! What is it with pancakes and boatloads of sugar filled sauces?"

Dan and Fred looked at each other and shrugged.

"Yeah, he's a weirdo," Dan mumbled to Fred.

"Well, you two better get going then!" Fred grinned.

"I take it you're not coming?" Andrew asked.

"Not for me, really, the whole waving around guns and shooting people," Fred shook his head.

"Well, see you later, Fred," Dan waved.

"Yeah, see you around," Andrew smiled.

"Good luck, you two," Fred smiled back.

Dan and Andrew walked out of the dining hall and down to the front door where a crowd of about 20 people were milling around. Peter was standing at the front of the group, with his back to them. They walked up to him.

"Hiya, Peter, what's up?"

"Oh, hi you two!" Peter grinned, "I'm just waiting for Timothy and a few others to arrive, then we're all here!"

"Cool," Muttered Andrew. They moved away from the group to talk to each other.

"You've still got sauce on your chin, you know?" Andrew told Dan.

Dan wiped across his chin with his sleeve and grinned, "Ah, I don't think I've ever eaten pancakes without getting sauce on my chin. It wouldn't seem right not to. It makes me wonder whether I do it deliberately or not..."

Andrew stared at Dan, "Freak,"

"I know you are," Dan said, patting Andrew on the shoulder.

"Alright!" Peter yelled from the front of the group, "Everyone's here so let's move out, people!"

Dan and Andrew joined the crowd surging towards the front door. Timothy walked over to them.

"Hi, you two!" He grinned at them mockingly.

"I know at least 3 ways to kill you with my bare hands. If you give me a gun, I won't clean it, I'll use it to kill you," Dan warned.

Timothy's grin was less mocking, "Where's the respect for the elderly?"

"Dude, the elderly are all dead, or in old people homes, get over it," Andrew replied.

"Dude, saying the word dude, is my way of starting a conversation, so go piss off and come up with something else!" Dan joked.

"Sorry, dude, you just keep talking to me, and I kinda keep picking it up. Do you think I _want_ to keep saying dude all the time?"

"Yes,"

"Fine,"

"Ok,"

"Brilliant,"

"Great,"

"Shut up," Timothy intervened.

They made their way out of the door and into the fresh air. Timothy lead them over to a black car and they all got in.

"Sheesh, what's the obsession with black cars?" Dan grumbled, buckling up and turning to Timothy and Peter, who had been waiting in the car already.

"So... what's the plan?"

"The plan is you two stay in the car, and don't go anywhere near their base. We do all the work and you sit and... How did you put it? Observe."

"Fine with me," Dan shrugged.

"Everything's fine with you. You're like some kind of robot android thing that agrees with everything!" Andrew sighed.

"How the fuck did you think up that?" Dan asked.

"Dunno, I was bored,"

"You're always bored,"

"Stop arguing, you two!" Snapped Timothy.

"Fine, fine," Dan mumbled.

"Moody Mary," Andrew grumbled.

Dan burst out laughing.

* * *

Chapter 91~Anna

"Arron?" I asked.

"Yeah?"

"You know how, when you're doing tons of exercise, there's supposed to be a point where you're so exhausted you can't go on, and, if you push yourself and carry on past that point, you're supposed to have, like a whole ton of newfound energy?" I asked

"Not really, no,"

"Well," I continued, "Do you think that happens with boredom too? You know, you get so bored, you can't carry on, but you do, and suddenly, you're not bored anymore,"

"For you Anna? I doubt it. For normal people? There's a possibility,"

"Gee, thanks, Arron," I muttered sarcastically. We were both sitting on the floor, leaning on the walls and looking around feeling bored. Absolutely _nothing_ had happened since we'd got here. Like, nothing at all nothing. They hadn't even given us any food or water. I was so thirsty it hurt to _think_ about water. The only way to distract myself was to be interested in something else. And there wasn't anything within 100 miles of here that could vaguely resemble 'interesting'. I spy was no longer a thrilling game, noughts and crosses could go to hell, and if I had to think up one more name, I'd probably kill every person alive who was called that.

"You know what? I almost wish they'd just come in and shoot us. I'm bored through to hell and back. And then to hell again. And then back. Several times." I croaked, my dry throat stinging at the effort of talking.

"Can you quit talking about death and hell, and crappy shit like that? It gets on my nerves." Arron sighed.

"You know what gets on my nerves?" I asked, getting up and stretching.

"No, and I don't want to know," Arron groaned.

"It was a rhetorical question, dimwit!" I snapped at Arron, then continued, "Boredom. Boredom gets on my nerves. It's soooo boring."

"And now we know why _boredom_ is another word for _boring_," Arron muttered.

"I mean," I ploughed on, "When you're bored, you have nothing to do,"

"I think you'll find it's the other way round; when you have nothing to do, then you're bored," Arron interrupted. I glared at him.

"I'm _trying_ to make a speech here!" I rasped, then carried on talking, pacing about the room with my hands clasped behind my back, "Because you have nothing to do, you do stupid shit instead, and that's stupid,"

"No? Really?" Arron muttered sarcastically.

"It's stupid," I repeated, louder, "Because... because... Hey what the fuck's with all those people?" I asked suddenly.

"What is the fuck with all those people?" Arron asked, not interested at all.

"No, seriously, a whole ton of people just came out of the woods, right to the left of us. With guns."

Arron rolled his eyes, "Right, 'cos that's so gonna happen, considering we're in the middle of nowhere and all,"

"Well, I _see_ a whole ton of people running towards us," I argued.

Arron shrugged, "Maybe you're hallucinating,"

The figures had reached the doors bellow us now, and they rammed into them with a massive BANG. I turned to Arron.

"Am I still hallucinating?"

Arron groaned and stood up, "Nope, apparently not. Well, maybe this could be then end to you plague of boredom,"

"What the hell?"

Arron shrugged, "It seemed plague like to me,"

I raised my eyebrows, "I wonder what plague is next then? The plague of... exploding things?"

Another BANG sounded below. Arron rolled his eyes.

"There is no way that wasn't planned," He grinned.

"What wasn't planned?" I asked innocently.

Another BANG, louder this time.

"That," Arron sighed.

I turned back to the window. "Why do you think they're all here?"

"Maybe they were holding a vendetta against... what did you call the creepy weirdo guy again?"

"Bob. Bob's a cool name. He doesn't deserve the name Bob. I'm being generous, really. And what's a vendetta?"

"A vendetta is, like, a grudge. So, maybe they have a grudge against... Bob,"

"Should we, like, wave at them, or try to attract their attention?" I asked, looking out at the few figures that were still outside.

"Why? They might be even worse than Bob!"

"So, an enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?"

"Fuck quoting stuff from the bible and start waving!" Arron said decisively.

"Really? It's from the bible? Well, just knows how much shit I know!" I grinned, amazed.

"Yes, you're as clever as can be! Now move it!" He snapped. We both stood in front of the window and waved madly. I pounded on the glass.

"You were, like, quoting from Dr Seuss there, you know?" I told him as I whacked the window.

"Who's Dr Seuss?" Arron asked, confused.

"You know! The Cat in the Hat guy? The I Don't like Green Eggs and Ham guy?" I replied, then stepped away from the window, "This isn't working. We need to smash the window..."

Arron realised what I was going to do and stepped back from the window too.

"Violent _and_ dramatic. Not exactly the best qualities a little sister can have," Arron sighed.

"Fuck off," I muttered, and kicked the window. My leg went right through, easily, and I guessed that the glass hadn't been very thick at all. No wonder we got cold on nights.

Anyway, back to the window. It smashed immediately, several shards of glass falling and impaling themselves in my leg. I staggered back, clutching my thigh, and collapsed on the floor. Arron began yelling as loud as his hoarse voice would allow. I dug out the biggest pieces of glass, nearly screaming in pain.

"Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit." I repeated. It was almost becoming a chant. Arron turned his attention back to me.

"Fucking hell, Anna! This is by far the worst bloody idea you've ever had," He gasped, taking in my bleeding-absolutely-tons leg.

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Fuck. Shit. Crap!" I yelped as Arron started to pull out pieces of glass, "Arron, just leave it, ok, I'm fine, really," I lied.

Arron looked at me dubiously, "Fine? Right,"

"Ok, Ok, it hurts like hell! Just quit pulling out the glass! That makes it hurt even more!"

"I need to apply pressure to the cuts to stop the bleeding, but I can't with all the glass!" Arron argued.

"Arron, I know that you know everything there is to know about medicine, but _please_, just leave my leg alone. All this shit's usually done with painkillers at the very least! It freakin' kills!" I bit my lip and scrunched up my face. Blood was flowing freely from my leg.

"Ok, Anna, I'll leave it for now," Arron said, hugging me.

"Thanks," I half sobbed with relief.

I sat there for several minutes, listening to the banging and the running and the shouting, my breath coming in hisses, when, suddenly, the lock in the door turned and someone burst in.

It was Bob, only, he looked half crazy. His hair and clothes were a mess, and sweat covered his brow. Gone was the fake, calm demeanour he'd had before. Now he was wild eyed and out of breath. He held up his hand, and pointed a gun at us.

"Up against the wall, now, or I'll shoot!" He screamed at us.

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Review, please, and I'll post more soon! *laughs evily*


	21. Back Again

Here's the next few chapters, read, enjoy, review!

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Chapter 95~Anna

Arron and I froze, unsure what to do.

"Up against the wall!" Bob screamed again.

I looked up at Arron, who hurriedly helped me up and dragged me over to the far corner of the room. We turned back to face him, standing side by side. I was leaning on my good leg.

"Hands in the air now!"

Slowly, I raised my hands. Arron did the same. I realised I was trembling. Bob was actually kinda scary when he was like this.

Bob moved away from the doorway and started walking towards us. He was halfway across the room when two people burst in. One looked vaguely familiar.

"Peter?" Arron gasped, agape at the two figures, both pointing their guns at Bob.

Peter! I remembered him now; he was Dad's friend from work.

"Don't move, either of you," Peter cautioned.

"What the fuck is Peter doing here?" I hissed at Arron.

"No clue!" Arron hissed back.

Bob was swapping glares between us and Peter, glancing constantly back and forth. I wondered if he was getting dizzy. The gun was still pointed our way, though, so I didn't dare say anything.

"If you shoot them, we'll shoot you. You won't get anywhere with violence. Put the gun down," Peter's friend said slowly.

Bob laughed, "If I put the gun down, I won't get anywhere, either!" He said, before laughing even more madly.

"If you don't put the gun down, then we will have to take you by force. You could just surrender," Peter told Bob.

Bob smiled menacingly, "Well then, you'll have to take me by force, then, but not before I've had my very last say in things,"

And, before anyone could react, he lifted the gun and shot it once. A felt a blinding pain in my shoulder, and screamed, collapsing on the floor. A second shot rang out, and everyone started shouting. Arron was leaning over me.

"Anna! Anna, are you ok?" He demanded.

"Owwwwwwww," I moaned, clutching my shoulder, I tried to focus on Arron, but he kept getting fuzzier and fuzzier.

"Anna?" My brother's voice seemed to be coming from the end of a very long tunnel. I slumped against the wall, moaning, and everything went black.

Chapter 96~Emma

My lungs burned, crying out for air as I ran next to Raine. I gasped, desperately trying to claim back some oxygen. We were on a 10 mile jog, and our backpacks were filled with weights. Raine and I had ran the first 5 miles without a problem, but then we'd started uphill, and things had gotten a lot harder. We'd only done another 3 miles.

Suddenly, Raine tripped over next to me. She cried out in pain, as I skidded to a stop, almost grateful for the excuse.

"What is it?" I demanded, walking back to her, "What's happened?"

Raine was wincing and stretching her foot, prodding it, "I just fell over on my ankle. I'm fine, I think," She said hesitantly.

"Try to stand up," I suggested, panting heavily still.

Raine slipped the backpack off and stood up. She winced slightly as her foot took her wait, but nodded to me, "I'm ok, I guess. Just tripped over my own feet,"

I sighed in relief, and Raine bent down to get her backpack. She slung over her back and took a step forward.

"Ow! Man!" She winced, stopping immediately, "It's too heavy; my ankle hurts really bad if I wear it," I looked from her to the bag to her ankle, then judged how much I already had in my own backpack, which felt heavy enough as it was.

"Give your pack here," I sighed.

Raine looked apologetic and handed over her bag. I pulled my own bag off my shoulders and opened both up. I moved several of the heaviest weights into my own backpack and zipped it back up. I handed Raine hers.

"Thanks, Emma," Raine smiled apologetically.

"Not your fault, so you shouldn't have to be punished for it," I grunted, setting off at a steady jog.

Raine matched my pace, wincing ever so slightly as she put weight on her bad ankle.

We were the last pair to arrive back, having gone considerably slower for the last 2 miles. It was getting darker outside, so everyone was mainly lumps of black. Large was stood waiting for us, and all of the other trainees were looking at us apologetically from the doorway. That means something bad is gonna happen because we were last, I thought to myself, and sighed.

Sure enough, the moment Raine and I had dropped our backpacks on the ground, Large stormed over to us.

"Well, looks like you two have finally arrived!" Large roared, and I wanted to hit him so badly, "It's a shame you took so long, isn't it?"

Really? I wanted to say, because the longer I take on these runs, the less I have to see your face, and that's a good thing, isn't it? But Raine and I stayed silent.

"Well, I guess I'll have to punish you for taking so long, won't I? How should I punish you?" Large pretended to think. "Well, I think that only one of you really needs to be punished. Lilly!" Large snapped. Lilly jumped in surprise and turned to Mr Large.

"Lilly, who do you think should take the punishment?" Large asked, turning his back on me and Raine.

Lilly looked horrified, and I suppose she had every right to; no one wants to have to decide who gets punished by an idiot like Large. I looked at Raine, whose ankle looked swollen slightly. She looked cold and tired and exhausted. I didn't think that she'd be able to get back up if I pushed her over. Not that I felt any better.

Lilly was looking past Large, at us, trying to decide, too, who was more likely to make it. I pointed at myself, and she nodded fractionally, looking upset.

"Um... Emma?" She said, acting unsure.

"Emma it is then!" Large crowed delightedly. He turned back to me, "Now, Emma, I want you to go inside and grab your blanket, then come back out here. The rest of you can go and continue doing whatever you were doing before. Everyone gave me sympathetic looks as I trudged warily inside and grabbed my cover off my bed.

Outside again, I turned back to Large, who told me to fold up the blanket and chuck it in the mud in front of me. I did so glaring at it angrily, and imagining it was Large's face. Then Large told me to stand on my blanket, on one foot. I did so, holding out my arms for balance.

"Now, I want you to stand like that until the sun comes up. And I will be able to tell if you put your foot down!" Large barked. Then, he headed back inside and locked the door so I couldn't get in.

I stared out into the night, shivering, partly because I was still trying to keep my balance, partly because I was cold. The only part of me that was warm was my feet, and they were too warm. I sighed; it was going to be a long night.

Chapter 97~Anna

I woke up to find someone shining a torch in my eye. Without thinking, I moved my arm to cover my eyes. Pain stabbed through my arm.

"Ow! Shit!" I yelped.

"Clever idea, dipswitch," Came the sarcastic voice I'd grown to know so well.

"Huh? Dan? Go fuck yourself, I'm mortally injured," I replied, blinking and looking around.

A woman in a white apron type thing was now putting away her torch and sorting her stuff out. After a few seconds she left the room.

"Anna, we're in the medical block, and the staff here has been known to hit patients who swear," Arron grinned at me, as soon as the woman had left.

"Hey, you go kick a window and then get shot, let's see what you'd say," I scowled.

"Well, Hi would be perfectly fine," Gabby muttered.

"Well then, Gabby, Hi, how are you? I'd hug you but I can't 'cos I got shot," I grinned at her, "You know, I'd have also waved my arm about in the air to give emphasis on that fact, but I think I'll skip that too,"

Gabby leaped up from her chair in the corner of my room and hugged me. I noticed for the first time what she was wearing.

"Woah! Where'd you get this? Are they selling them off on eBay or something? You better not have spent all my pocket money on it!" I teased her, prodding her red t-shirt with the CHERUB logo on it.

Dan walked up, grinning, "When you disappeared, Gabby and Emma came back to campus with us," He was wearing shorts and a navy blue CHERUB t-shirt.

"Nice to see you Dan, but, somehow, I can't imagine you as a CHERUB; you're not angelic enough," I told him, "Where's Emma, anyway?"

Dan's grin widened, "She's doing basic training," He told me.

None of that, of course, made any sense to me, "You what?" I asked.

"It's a 100 day survival course that all CHERUB's have to complete to become an agent. It's designed to push you really hard so everything seems easier afterwards. Your sister was forced into it."

I grinned, "I bet she just _loved_ that!"

Dan smirked, "Not at all; she ranted about it continuously. Right up until she started, of course,"

He saw my blank look, "In Basic Training, there's no communication with the outside world. She doesn't even know you're here. If she did, I think she probably would have slapped Mr Large and left by now,"

"Doesn't know I'm here? That's just criminal! It's just depriving her of her wonderful younger-by-only-a-little-bit sister!"

Dan smiled at me as I continued ranting, "And the ridiculous no communications thing! That has to be resolved immediately, I mean, what about the internet? I couldn't live without that! Hey!" I sat up abruptly, "Can I get up, I'm bored,"

Arron looked at me incredulously, "You've just woken up and you're bored?"

"Yup, I just spent god knows how many days sitting around doing nothing. I want to get up and move around. Has anyone got any food? I want to eat something. Or drink something. I haven't had a drink in... I dunno how many days. Feels like years. My tongue's all sandpapery and bleugh!"

Gabby grinned, "The doctor said you weren't to do too much exercise, 'cos your arm and leg aren't completely healed, but there's a lift at the end of the corridor, so if you can walk down the corridor, stand in the lift and hop to the main building, you might just get breakfast,"

"Great, let's go. But, first, tell me you got me some decent clothes so I'm running round in _this_," I pointed at white hospital dress I was wearing, and scrunched up my face in disgust.

Gabby grinned and chucked a light blue top and combat trousers at me.

"We'll wait outside," She said, shoving Arron and Dan out with her.

"Oh," She said, popping her head back round the door, "Andrew and Elizabeth said hi,"

"Good to know," I said cheerfully, swinging my legs round and climbing stiffly off the bed. My right leg, the one I'd cut to pieces was heavily bandaged from knee downwards, and my left shoulder was unable to move under the sheer weight of bandage wrapped around it.

After several minutes, I finally had some decent clothes on. Gabby had left a single sock and boot at the bottom of the bed. I realised that the bandages reached all the way around my foot too, making it too big to fit into any sock or shoe. I scowled and attempted to put on my sock and shoe.

As I did, I thought about... well, CHERUB. From the sounds of it, Gabby _liked_ it here! And Arron knew all about it and seemed fine with it all. And Emma was away for a hundred days, so she couldn't say a thing until then! And _Dan_ was here! I shook my head, clearing my thoughts suddenly, and went back to my sock.

A further five minutes later, I hobbled to the door and attempted to open it. I couldn't open it with my left arm, and I could only lean on my left leg, so my balance failed me several times before I managed to jam my combat boot clad foot in the doorway.

I hobbled out, scowling at the amused look on Gabby, Arron and Dan's face.

"Would you like some help?" Dan asked mockingly.

"Course Dan, would you mind carrying me, my legs feel unsteady after lying on a bed for a while. I can still _walk_ dumbo, just not as well as some big headed oafs can,"

"I take it you're offending me," Dan grinned, helping me hobble to the lift.

"Yup, I am, get over it," I told him.

"Ah, good times," My brother sighed, "When my sister argues with everyone and no one seems to care,"

"You got the right, freak," I told him, grinning.

The lift came and we got in. Gabby pushed the button for the ground floor.

"So... how long have you been here now, Gabby?" I asked.

Gabby shrugged, "A few weeks,"

"How long have _I_ been here?"

Everyone shrugged, "Three days or so," Arron muttered.

"Great, not long then. How long does it take to recover from a bullet wound? When does the next basic training start? What's for breakfast?"

Everyone stared at me.

"What?" I demanded.

"What's for _breakfast_?" Dan asked.

"Is it a _crime_ to be hungry?"

"Nope, apparently not," Dan laughed.

"Good, 'cos I am," I muttered.

The lift stopped and we got out and made our way out of the building and over to the main building. Several people gave us a weird look as we walked along, and I suppose they had every right to; A random girl with a massive bandage on her leg, and one on her arm, wearing a blue CHERUB top, walking along with a guy the same age as her, a girl several years younger than her, and a guy who isn't wearing any CHERUB uniform at all, just normal clothes, and is obviously too old to be a CHERUB.

One guy spotted us and headed over, "Hi Dan!" He grinned, "Hiya, Gabby!" He turned to me and Arron, "So, this must the the famous Anna. I hear you're good at hacking?"

"I could hack into the campus's automatic doors and tell them to hut on your skinny arse, so don't even _try_ to make a bet that you're just as good. That's my brother Arron, by the way, you go talk; I'm hungry." I waved my arm at him.

The guy grinned, "I'm Liam. Nice to meet you Arron, and you, Anna,"

"Nice to meet you too. Excuse my crabbiness, I'm a nice person when I'm not hungry," I told him.

Dan waved to Liam as we walked on. We entered the main building and turned off into the lunch hall. I started to head over to the back of the queue but Dan stopped me.

"I'll get you your breakfast, you go sit down. Anything specific you want?"

"Yes," I told him, looking sincere, "Food,"

Dan grinned and headed off. Gabby and Arron helped me hobble over to a table. I looked up and spotted Andrew and Elizabeth sitting waiting for us. After a second, Dan joined me with the food.

"Ah, she's up and about at last!" Grinned Elizabeth.

"Yup, near death experiences aside, I decided I was hungry," I told Elizabeth.

Elizabeth snorted, "Near death experiences? Hardly!"

"Yeah," Gabby grinned up at me as I sat down, "Did you know that Elizabeth's gonna be 15 soon?"

I glanced at Elizabeth suspiciously, "Yup, I knew!" I announced, surprising everyone who had, as I'd expected, thought I'd freak out.

"Uh... how?" Dan asked after a few seconds of silence.

"Easy; I'm secretly telepathic and can read all of your thoughts. Guess what you're thinking now?"

Arron rolled his eyes, "What?"  
"You're thinking, 'she's making it all up, she can't read minds at all!' Ha!" I replied, grinning as I saw Arron's look of disbelief.

"What am I thinking now?" Gabby demanded sceptically.

"Who cares? Can I go see Emma now?" I asked Dan.

"Um... you do realise you're not allowed to see Emma, right?" Dan told me.

"I know, but Dan, what you don't realise, my friend, is that rules are made to be broken,"

Chapter 98~Emma

By the time it was light outside, my whole body felt stiff and numb. I could hear people waking up and having showers inside, and I put my foot down, and rubbed my eyes, yawning. My eyes felt like they had grit in them and I couldn't actually feel my hands. I rubbed them together and blew on them a few times while I waited for Large to let me back inside.

No such luck; the other trainees came outside before I was let in, and Large was screaming at us to run the assault course. We set off, me trailing behind the others.

Once we arrived at the start of the assault course, Raine turned to me, "Oh, God! I'm so sorry Emma! I felt so guilty!"

I smiled at her as we started down the mud tunnels. "It's ok, no harm done. All I can say is that I'm gonna sleep well tonight,"

We climbed out of the tunnels and I saw how far off all of the others were, "We'd better get a move on, I suppose," I sighed, starting forward again. We crossed over the water with the rope fairly easily, but the lake was something else all together. I was worn out from having stayed awake all night, and the cold water soon got the better of me. Raine was practically dragging me after her.

Suddenly, an oh-so-familiar voice rang out across the lake.

"Move like you mean it, bitch!" My sister yelled at me, "Kick those legs, damn it! Don't make me get in there!"

I turned to look, nearly swallowing half the lake as I did, "Anna?" I asked incredulously.

"Who else, dipswitch? Now get swimming!"

I coughed back up the water I'd swallowed and began treading water, staring at Anna in amazement.

She was 50 metres away, at the water's edge, by herself. She was wearing a blue trainee's CHERUB top and one of her legs and one of her arms was covered in masses of white bandage.

Mr Large had clearly spotted her, as he started running towards her and yelling.

"What are you doing? You are not permitted to be here unless you're a trainee!" He yelled.

Anna turned to stare him down as he ran, "Kiss my arse and get over you're fucking rules!" Anna yelled back at him, before sprinting off in the other direction with surprising speed, considering her legs was all bandaged up and all.

Raine was grinning at me when I turned back and started swimming. "I take it that's your sister?"

I grinned back properly for the first time since I'd started Basic Training, "Hell yeah!"

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OOOOOOOOh! Last chapter is coming up, guys! (I know, it's so sad... kinda -_-)


	22. Epilogue, Loose Ends

AAAARRRGGGHHHHHH! Clicked on wrong chapter -_- sorry, here's the _right_ chapter

Ok, so before you read the very last chapter, I want to say 1. Thank you to all my reviewees, you are amazing :P

2. To FreakyBookReader and chocoholic-alex, I am considering a sequel, but, honestly, I've barely recovered from writing this. If I do write a sequel, it will be a while until I actually post anything, so don't get too excited!I will tell you if I post anything, though :P

and 3. Ok, so we all know this story is called A CHERUB Fanfic, which, to be perfectly honest, just fails, because all of the Fanfics in the CHERUB section are about CHERUB, hence the name, so I'm renaming my fanfic, CHERUB; The Simons Twins

If you don't like it, say so, 'cos I want to know your opinion. Anyway, moving on, here is the last chapter (and, yes, I realise it's the Epilogue, which doesn't really count as a chapter, but still)!

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**Epilogue~Anna**

Arron, Gabby and I were sitting in Meryl's room. We'd been called here earlier today, and I was actually incredibly curious to what it was all about. Meryl sat across from us.

"You have quite a decision to make, you three," Meryl told us as we took our seats in front of her, "Gabby and Emma came here only because they were in danger. MI6 is now working on arresting the criminal organization that captured you two, so that threat no longer stands. I know that Arron is too old to stay here, "Meryl continued, looking at Gabby and me, "But the offer still stands for you, Anna, and Gabby, too."

I frowned, "What would happen to Arron if we stayed here?"

"Arron would get fostered by a family living close by. He could finish school and go to university, and you could visit him on weekends, whenever you wanted to," Meryl replied.

We looked at each other, each wanting to know the other's opinions before we made our decisions.

Arron shrugged, finally, "I don't really mind, as long as we're not separated. I _do_ need to finish school and go to university. If you guys want to stay here, it's your decision. And, anyway, you've made some good friends here. Emma won't be out of basic training for a while. She can't object to your choice. And, anyway, I think she likes this place more than she let on,"

I'd filled in Arron on the details of our visit to CHERUB, and our decision to turn their offer down. Well, _her_ decision. Then Gabby had filled _us_ in on how Emma had acted about being forced back here.

I turned to Gabby. "What do you think?" I asked her.

Gabby shrugged, "Well... there are too many hours of school, the rules are really strict and, well, you know, Basic Training. Bad points aside, these guys cook excellent food."

I grinned at her, "Well, I haven't really eaten much here, but I'll take your word on it." I turned back to Meryl, "I was always up for coming for CHERUB. I guess I still am," I told her.

Meryl smiled, "Well then, welcome, officially, to CHERUB. Before we sort out any paper work, though, I have something to tell you," She continued.

We all sat up a little straighter, curious.

"It's about your father," Meryl warned.

Arron glanced at us, and then back at Meryl, "Well, I don't know about Anna and Gabby, but, if there's anything we don't know that we should about our Dad, I'd rather just hear it,"

Gabby and I nodded.

Meryl took a deep breath, "Your father isn't dead," She told us.

The three of us stood gaping at her, our mouths hanging open. I don't think any of us were expecting that. Meryl carried on, oblivious to our actions. Or maybe just trying to ignore them, "He's not dead, but he's missing. There's a lot you didn't know about your father. Or, in fact, his partner at work, Peter."

Now, this is starting to sound like one of those many cheesy books where the parents are super spies that travel the world kicking butt while their kids are stuck at school doing work. Actually, in our case, it would just be Dad, 'cos Mum would have been too drunk to stand up straight, let alone kick butt.

"Your father worked for MI6, as an undercover agent," Meryl admitted. And, there we are, people, I thought, it is official; MI6 is now recruiting every kid's parents in the UK. Sign up and send your parents off to MI6 today! "He would pose as a nosy journalist trying to get a good story, and find out as much information as possible, without arousing suspicion. Once he thought he'd found a decent cover for Peter, he would pretend to get a news story somewhere else, and move out. Peter would then take his place, pretending to be whatever Michael suggested, so that he could get information back to MI6. They _were_ work partners, just of a different sort."

"But... what about all those reports he had in his office?" I demanded, remembering the one that had led me to CHERUB.

"They were reports from MI6, most of them," Meryl replied. "When your father had the accident, he was making his way home after finding out some vital information, on an undercover mission. He was discovered, though, and forced to ditch the mission and head back to Manchester, for safety. Unfortunately, he had the accident. We're not entirely sure the whole thing wasn't set up. Michael agreed with MI6 that he had to fake his death, before something seriously bad happened, and that's what they did. You were moved into care, and Michael recovered from the accident. The plan was to leave you in care for several months, just in case they were watching you, before having you 'adopted' by your father again. You'd start a new life somewhere else. It wasn't exactly the nicest of plans, but it was the best one short of faking everyone's death and moving out of the country,"

"But what went wrong? You said our Dad was missing," Arron asked, trying to be calm.

Meryl nodded gravely, "Yes, he is missing, unfortunately. The criminal organization must have caught wind of our plans to move him to a safe house. The car Michael, and about five others, were in was ambushed, barely 20 minutes after they set off. The car driver survived because he hid in the foot well, and he was unarmed, so they left him. Michael and two of the other agents made a run for it, and didn't get caught, apparently. MI6, apparently, haven't had any report back from any of them. No one knows where they are, if they're still alive, and if they have been captured by anyone or not. That's what MI6 told me, at least. Your dad's friend, Peter, is gutted, of course. Everyone is; Michael was a very likeable man," Meryl finished.

I shut my eyes; it was just too much to take in. My dad wasn't dead, but he was probably presumed dead. I wished, in some ways, that Dad hadn't been an MI6 agent, but then I realised none of this would have happened, and, despite the whole being kidnapped thing, the past few weeks hadn't been _that_ bad. Plus, life at CHERUB sounded a lot better than life at my –old- local comprehensive.

"I understand this is hard for you to accept, but you must know that your Dad _is_ presumed dead. I'm sorry," Meryl announced sincerely.

I shook my head and looked up at her, "Don't be," I said, and, knowing that I spoke for Arron and Gabby, too, I told her, "He isn't dead; He's just missing,"

**The End**


	23. End Note

Ok, so I promised I'd let you all know when/if I posted a sequel to my story, so... basically that's what I'm doing.

So the sequel's called;

CHERUB: Family Ties

so, go ahead and start reading!

-Lulu Bee-


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